Ratchet and Clank-The Lost Race
by RatchetKicksAss44
Summary: Ratchet Darkstar, Clank, and a few others use the Dimensionator to find the lombaxes, who are under seige (again) by Percival Tachyon and his forces. Rated M for blood and gore, intense violence , drug references, and frequent intense language. Give me reviews that either criticize, compliment, or have ideas for my story. I'd love to improve it.
1. Chapter 1- The Invasion

THE LOST RACE

happenings after the events of A Crack in Time

**Chapter 1:**

**The Invasion**

Explosions.

Kaden Darkstar awoke with a start. He could have sworn he was dreaming. The prophecy had warned of this happening, the elders trying to take precautions, yet it was terrifying nonetheless.

Kaden was a handsome lombax, and a dedicated one at that. He had silky, blond fur, with brown stripes all along his long, shiny ears, down the side of his face, and on his lion-like tail. He had kind, emerald green eyes, as if somebody had replaced his real eyes with jewels. He was six feet five inches tall,which made him look like part of the LPG. He had a set jaw, and was well built. He had been a unanimous choice among the lombax elders to be the Keeper of the Dimensionator, the most versatile invention in the galaxy. This position was the highest honor of the lombax race. Now he thought about it, it was ironic that he went through all that training and was fairly stressed out about the current situation. A scream snapped him back into his senses.

_Dammit! Belle! Where the hell is she?_ He tore apart their bedroom, desperately trying to find his wife, but to no avail. _Think, you useless idiot, think! You're the Keeper! Remember your training!_ A scream shattered his inwardly cursing himself, and he came to his senses. _The kitchen!_ He had tried to sleep before he had dinner, in order to get more rest before nightfall: The happening of his son, Ratchet, had caused both he and his wife sleepless nights.

_I'll need a weapon._ _If it's who I think it is knocking on our door, that son knows me too well to come unarmed. _He vigorously dug through the mess he had made trying to find Belle, when his hand bumped the grip of his OmniWrench8000. He also found his X-15 assault pistol. The pistol had been part of his changing of the Guard, when he was promoted from a 5SG to the Keeper. His very life and soul was put into protecting that gun, which, in turn, was put into protecting his family.

Gun in hand, he threw open the door and sprinted down the hall. Smoke was the welcome he received. His helmet immediately folded onto his face, calming him down a little bit. "Tracking signals go," Kaden commanded his visor. "Scan complete. No hostiles in present vicinity," his helmet responded, sounding like a humanoid butler. "Umm..Sir, what would make you panic?" it asked. "Well...shit happens," came the reply.

The helmet was of his own creation, and one of his most prized possessions. He modified it to activate any part of his armor at any given time. He owed his life to that helmet; it had helped him out of Death's arms countless times.

Another scream, closer this time. _Oh, SHIT! "_Belle! **Belle! **ANSWER ME!" Kaden was surprised at how desperate his voice sounded. He got onto his lift. He was extremely anxious, rolling up and down on the balls of his feet. At last, he found the lift stopped, and he readied his feet to sprint to the kitchen.

The lift opened, and he saw cold, piercing gray-blue eyes. _An Ultor! _Ultors were handpicked elite foot soldiers, commissioned by Emperor Percival Tachyon himself. They were feared warriors, for when they did not have weapons or ammo, they had claws built into their hazmat suits, able to tear flesh and spill blood more effectively than a Grok. His hand seemed to have left his body according to his mind; the next thing he knew, his 15 was out in front of his body, purple blood splattered all over it. He leaped over the dead Ultor, accidentally tripping over its weapon: the infamous Decimator. Decimators were feared by the galaxy, and were outlawed in the parts of the galaxy where law was being kept. _Well, this could help._ He picked it up, knowing what power he possessed. _That's what happens when you do business with a pothead: You end up dead on the floor __ with your gun stolen by a highly trained commando._

He found the kitchen with a hole blasted in it. Kaden was hit by a overwhelming pain. So many memories came flying at him: He and Belle having their first meal as a couple, Ratchet having his first dinner, the three of them in the kitchen, Ratchet dunking Kaden's tail into a pot on the stove without Kaden knowing about it, then suddenly pulling it out and starting to work on getting whatever was in the pot out of the end of his tail. Tears welled up in his eyes, and another scream snapped him out of it.

"KADEN! KADEN! HELP ME!"

"BELLE!"

He saw her underneath a pile of rubble, only her head and shoulders poking out. She was barely breathing, which threw Kaden into a mind-numbing state of panic. "Belle, are you all right?" His breath was coming hard and heavy, and he saw his wife's face looking at him. He felt a rush of emotions. She was one of the only lombaxes left in this dimension. All others had fled when General Alister Azimuth betrayed the Lombax Secrets to Emperor Percival Tachyon. It was Alister who had given Kaden his X-15. His tears came mercilessly, streaming down his face with no shame. He saw Belle's lips moving, but words weren't coming. Kaden lay down on the floor, even with his wife, and called on his large lombax ears to help him better hear her dying words.

"Kaden... listen... to me..." Alarm bells were blaring in Kaden Darkstar's head. Only one thing could make his wife's voice this low and desperate: certain death. He tried to comfort her. "Belle, don't worry, everything will be all right as soon as I free you-"

"No... not me, Ratchet, Kaden. Ratchet." She took a sharp breath, and Kaden tried to help her. "Leave... me... Ratchet is... the... Chosen One," insisted Belle. "No. We've been through everything together. You stayed behind, just for me. I owe my life to you, Belle. You and I, we're inseparable."

"Kaden... you've read... the prophecy... the Scrolls of Destiny... he is.. the one worth saving." Belle's voice was getting weaker, and Kaden had to strain to hear her. "Save... Ratchet. It will... make me happy." Kaden's tears were now paired with Belle's. He couldn't decide.

He was torn, torn between saving his wife, and losing his infant son or saving Ratchet, and leaving his wife to die. He turned around, bitterness consuming his soul. He turned to his wife, and said three fatal words:

"So be it."

His wife smiled weakly at him, and he was overwhelmed with grief. He bent down and looked at her. His grief was too much to resist: He kissed her. He kissed her like he never kissed anyone before, and she was kissing back at him, the tears running silently down their faces. Kaden felt his wife's lips go slack, and he knew what had happened: he, Kaden Darkstar, had killed his own wife.

He heard faint crying. Regretfully, he pried his lips away from his wife, and rushed up to Ratchet's room. He found Ratchet in the crib, and a Heavy Ultor pointing his Decimator at the infant lombax's face. Kaden took the Decimator he had claimed from the Ultor at the lift and shot.

Until then, Kaden had never seen a Decimator in action. He had only been briefed that they were disintegration weapons, designed by Tachyon's top scientists. When he pulled the trigger, a long, wide, bluish-purple ray shot out, buzzing with energy. The Heavy Ultor turned blue where the ray had hit, then spread through his body until there was nothing left of him, his Decimator smoking on the floor.

Kaden ran to his son's crib. There was infant Ratchet, a year old and crying, as always. Kaden could not blame him. Those menaces scare all civilians. Ratchet was swaddled in cloth, just like Kaden had left him. He couldn't leave Ratchet behind. His wife was counting on him. He couldn't let her down.

Kaden burst through Ratchet's bedroom door into the hall. Ratchet was in one hand, his X-15 in the other. He encountered several more Ultors, all of whom were dead within three seconds of seeing the father and son pair. Kaden knew something he could not forget: Tachyon was a pyro.

_Safe place for Ratchet, safe place for Ratchet_, Kaden repeated in his head. He knew his home inside out, but could not think of a safe enough place. His head started spinning, and he saw the smoke turn a sickly shade of green.

_Poison! _Kaden tore once again into his bedroom. He kept Ratchet's airway closed, as the little lombax had no way to hold his breath. Kaden banged his head in frustration against the wall, putting a small scratch in his helmet.

Wait, his helmet! Kaden had a brilliant rush of genius. He fit his helmet over Ratchet's head, holding his breath as he did so. He found his old gas mask that he used so many cycles ago. He threw it over his head and prepared for the worst.

Kaden's house got deadly quiet. He knew something was off, he just couldn't figure out what. He heard a faint beeping sound, and he went to investigate, baby Ratchet in his arms. _It's probably just that damn smoke detector_, thought Kaden to himself. _But then why do I feel uneasy?_

Another explosion, this time closer. Kaden shielded himself and Ratchet against the blast. Ratchet flew from Kaden's hands and slid into a corner. _No! What if they hear him? What if they see him? He'll be killed, and the prophecy will be wrong!_

_ The prophecy...the prophecy... the prophecy..._ The words echoed inside Kaden's head. He decided to pretend Ratchet wasn't there. He turned around and saw a figure moving towards him through the smoke. It was Tachyon.

Tachyon had a very sinister look about him. He stood just under six feet, had a centipede-like body, and had rough, gray skin. He had evil, red eyes that could pierce through any darkness. He wore a red and gold crown-like hat on top of his head, and was always dressed in black. Tachyon had a very evil reputation. He had approached the lombaxes after the Great War, trying to access their secrets and gain their trust. The only one who believed him was Alister. Kaden had warned Alister not to trust him, but Alister had become convinced that it was the right thing to do for the galaxy. He betrayed the lombaxes and granted Tachyon all of their secrets and technology.

Tachyon had wasted no time in turning the lombaxes' own technology against them. By gathering an army of robots and aliens alike, he met the Lombax Praetorian Guard with devastating force. After he had destroyed the platoon that was sent to meet him, he pressed on to the capital of Fastoon, the planet that marked the beginning of the lombax race. The civilians sought refuge in the Court of Azimuth, where Alister was tried and found guilty. The lombaxes retreated under Tachyon's power, and soon, every lombax was at the Court. The Dimensionator was there, and was used to transport the lombaxes to another dimension. Only five lombaxes stayed behind: Kaden, Anabelle, and Ratchet Darkstar, Alister Azimuth, and Angela Cross.

As Kaden was reviewing the scenario that had brought him to this, Tachyon spoke. "So, finally we meet the Keeper of the Dimensionator. I was expecting someone a little more brave," he said with a smirk. _He thinks he's won it. He thinks it's over._

"Emperor Percival Tachyon. You're shorter than I expected," said Kaden as he pushed a distress button behind his back. Tachyon's eyes narrowed at the retort. "Where is the Dimensionator? Where is that which I came for?" he demanded.

"Oh, yeah, I sold it for 700 grand. Where do you think, smart ass? Does your memory leave you that fast?" Kaden was being intentionally cocky, because he knew he needed time for help. Tachyon bit back and said, "Would you be that cocky when faced with ten of my loyal Ultors?"

"Anything to keep my ears from bleeding, listening to you talk," said Kaden. He saw Tachyon's hand move towards his belt, then heard the crack of an HVS45. He felt a sharp pain in the middle of his left ear, and his eyes started to sting. He wiped his hand on his ear, and found that, instead of just shooting the tip of his ear off and leaving his blue blood there, there was a perfect hole where the bullet had struck. Instead of getting angry at him, Kaden said, "I seem to have hit a nerve. I thought you had a better temper than this."

"You dare taunt me? I thought lombaxes were stupid enough. ULTORS!" Tachyon's voice hit an octave calling for a ProtoPet, but it drove the point home nonetheless. Ultors swarmed in and surrounded Kaden. He looked at his distress button, and located where his help was: two clicks away. "Yeah, I've got time," he muttered to himself, then said to his opponents, "Let's go."

All ten Ultors fired at the same time. Kaden thought for a fraction of a second, and ducked. The Decimator rays went flying back at the Ultors, six of whom were disintegrated, the other four lucky enough to leap out of the way. They pursued Kaden without haste.

Kaden, however, kept calm. He was a hoverboarder in his youth, and was used to making split-second decisions. The first two Ultors ran up from behind him. He backflipped over their heads, and opened fire. Blood spurted from one as it became limp on the floor. _That's the only good thing about Ultors. They're trained to be soldiers, not logical thinkers._ Tachyon gave a snort of anger, and Kaden felt chills down his spine. _He can read my thoughts!_ The other Ultor that Kaden had almost forgotten about snapped Kaden's attention back to their battle by swiping his side. Kaden fell down in a heap of blood.

_Damn! Now__** I've**__ forgotten __**my**__ training! _Kaden looked up, hand over his bloody side. He saw the Ultor take another swipe. He grabbed its hand and twisted it, breaking it instantly. The Ultor had no way of bringing attention to his hand, because Kaden kneed him in the gut and threw his head against the wall. Kaden heard the Ultor's skull crack, and blood poured from beneath its helmet.

_Two down, two to go_, thought Kaden, as he saw two more racing towards him. He grabbed one and made the other take cover. The one he grabbed had dropped his Decimator, so he had no way of freeing himself and killing his captor. Kaden quickly slammed his wrench over the Ultor's neck, and tightened it, so the Ultor couldn't breathe. Kaden felt like that too; it was becoming very difficult for his lungs to recycle air through the smoke. He stood up panting, and looked very much at home about it. Maybe because he was at home, but maybe because he was a lombax, and lombaxes tend to pant when they are either hot or exhausted.

Kaden ripped his mask off, as he saw there was no poison in the air. His face was covered with soot, diminishing his handsome features. The second Ultor was firing at him, but since Kaden dropped his mask in such a way that he parted with it, the Ultor stopped firing. Kaden silently leaped up, grabbed ahold of a wooden I-beam on his roof, and landed on the Ultor.

One of Kaden's qualities was that he was a lateral thinker. He was short one wrench, and was out of ammunition for both his 15 and his Decimator. He looked over the struggling Ultor's armor and found a grenade. He armed the grenade, then ripped off the Ultor's mask, delivered the package and shut the door. He sprinted away from the Ultor as an explosion rocked Kaden's living room. He ran back to Tachyon as the smoke cleared, repairing his injured side as he went.

"You are the Keeper, or at least you FIGHT like one," said Tachyon with vigor. _Half a click left, hurry up, dammit!_ "Ah, yes, you've called for help. I can read your predominant thoughts, lombax. As for your skills, I will try them. You make the first move."

"Alrighty then." Kaden said. "You have no idea how high my level of training is." Tachyon's eyes narrowed. "Haven't I?" Tachyon whispered. Kaden threw a punch, giving himself the satisfaction of a yell as he went. Tachyon merely raised a hand, and the two heard the _crack_ of Kaden's knuckles.

"My turn," said Tachyon. Kaden was nursing his hand, but somehow found the strength to grab a skillet and block Tachyon's punch. There was an echoing _CLANG _ as Tachyon's fist hit the metal skillet. However, the Cragmite overlord left his fistprint in the skillet. Kaden threw it away. He threw another punch, this time with a kick to occupy it.

Tachyon grabbed Kaden's leg, twisted it, and snapped his arm. Kaden gave a loud cry of pain, and Tachyon pushed him back into the wall. Kaden slumped to the floor, two of his limbs useless. He knew he was defeated, he just had to hold out until help arrived.

_Too late to back out now! Hold out for thirty more seconds! _He instantly realized what he had done. With one swift move, Tachyon pinned him by the throat and slammed him against a wall.

"Where is it? Where is the Dimensionator? Surrender it to me or die!" Kaden struggled to get the words out. He had to tell Tachyon to screw off, to leave him and Ratchet alone, but he couldn't. Tachyon's grip was too strong.

Kaden was losing air fast, and with it, his life. His vision got blurry. He managed to get the words out, no matter how faint- "I'll... never... tell you." He stared back at Tachyon with determination. "You think that wise? So be it." Kaden saw him move to his belt yet again. He felt a sharp pain in his gut, except there was no bang. He knew what had happened: Tachyon had stabbed him.

Tachyon let go of him, and he slumped to the floor. His vision cleared, and the sight of his own blood welcomed him. He looked up and saw Tachyon standing over him. Tachyon was gloating over his victory, taunting Kaden. "Do you see? This is what happens to those who oppose me. Too bad you didn't make it fun while it lasted." Kaden struggled to get up, and said with a weak smirk, "Haven't... I?"

Suddenly, the two heard someone yell, "FRAG OUT!" outside the house. Three seconds later, there was a large explosion. "OKAY, DELTA SQUAD, MOVE OUT!" It was the Guard.

Tachyon cursed under his breath and tore out of the house. Kaden knew they were saved. He heard a familiar voice shout, "CLEAR!" The lombax who had yelled moved in on Kaden. As he drew nearer, Kaden saw who he was.

It was Alister.

Alister had mainly white fur, with red stripes all along his body. He had a two-sided, standard issue Praetorian wrench, and dark orange armor with a yellow circle in the middle of his chest. He and Kaden were identical in height, but Alister was far more sinister-looking after he betrayed the lombaxes. His eyes had gone from kindly blue to deep red, and his pupils were yellow, making him look like the Devil. His facial expression was usually a glare, and he had a hooked nose. Kaden felt he was a brother nonetheless.

Alister came nearer to Kaden. Kaden talked to him, but in a faint, dying voice- "Alis...ter... I've seen... the future... horrible things..." Alister looked at Kaden, concern filling his evil-looking eyes. "What is it, K? Does it have to do with the upcoming change of dimensions?" Kaden was surprised to hear how shaky Alister's voice was. "Won't know... until... too late... hordes of... Infected..." Kaden's words were difficult to come by, and Alister pushed more information out of him.

"What the hell are 'Infected'?" said Alister. "Can't... explain... not even you... could understand..." Kaden's voice was getting weaker, and all who were there knew it: Kaden would never again leave his house alive. "Listen... closely... you must look after... Ratchet... when he turns... eighteen... he will be in... constant danger... Please... save my... son,"

Kaden looked up at his friend and gave him a weak smile. Then he rested his head against the wall he was propped up on, and died. Alister looked down at his friend. He knew Kaden had gone, but he had a strange feeling of comfort. The tears poured silently down his face, diminishing some of his sinister-looking features.

Eighteen years later, the child named Ratchet, one of the last lombaxes in the galaxy, woke up with a start.


	2. Chapter 2- A Planet and an Artifact

**Chapter 2:**

**A Planet and an Artifact**

_ What the hell was that? That's never happened before. I know I never have sensible dreams, but I felt a connection._

"Ratchet? Are you all right?" It was Clank. Ratchet Darkstar snapped open his eyes. He was in his bed, just like that lombax in his dream. His little robotic pal was bent over him, and his large, circular green eyes were full of concern.

Ratchet was like Kaden in almost every way. Ratchet was exactly six feet tall, was mainly yellow, and had brown stripes all over him. He had emerald green eyes that shone with determination. He was eighteen years old, and his voice was like that of Jason Bourne. Their only other difference was their youth. Ratchet was not a hoverboarder, like Kaden was, but a mechanic, and a very smart one. He had constructed his own X-20, a more advanced weapon than Kaden's X-15 assault pistol, and had survived on his own since he was one year old.

Clank had come to Ratchet as a two-foot tall, failed prototype from Chairman Drek. He crash-landed his ship twenty feet away from Ratchet, almost killing the fifteen-year-old lombax. When Clank told Ratchet of his mission to stop Drek, Ratchet decided to help Clank. Ever since, the two had had many adventures.

"Hey, pal. I'm okay. It was just... a dream." He was surprised to find his body covered in sweat and his breath difficult to come by. Ratchet saw the robot's eyes narrow, like he always did when he knew Ratchet wasn't being straight with him. "It was more than that, Ratchet. What was it? You can tell me."

Ratchet pondered the justification of this statement. He had known Clank to have an evil twin, literally. Created by NefariLabs, Klunk had replaced Clank and had almost killed Ratchet, causing Clank to lose his trust for a while.

_Well, I guess I can. Since his evil twin's a scrap heap and his father died because I wasn't fast enough..._Ratchet sighed at this statement. Clank's father, Orvus, was interrogated by Dr. Nefarious, who was on a quest to find the Orvus Chamber and rewind time so villains across the galaxy could have free reign. Ratchet had waited too long, and Nefarious killed him.

The Orvus Chamber was never penetrated by the doctor, and was not a particularly fun topic for the pair to bring up; the Great Clock had been Alister Azimuth's final resting place, after sacrificing himself to fix his rewinding of the clock to bring the lombaxes back. Alister had killed Ratchet in cold blood, believing him to be a traitor to the lombaxes. Clank rewound time by six minutes and pushed Ratchet out of Death's way. He confronted Alister in the Chamber and defeated him. Ratchet broke the handle on the Clock, and the General replaced the handle with his wrench and Ratchet with himself. The resulting explosion concentrated its power on Azimuth's yellow plate on the chest of his armor, killing him. Ratchet thought about these things and gave in to Clank's curiosity. With a heavy sigh, he began to recant his dream to the little robot.

"All right. I had a drea... no, it was a nightmare. There was this lombax who looked exactly like me. He was tearing through his house, trying to save his family. He found his wife, and she told him to save me. The guy kissed her, then sprinted to their baby. He was heading out of the house when an explosion sent him flying and the baby out of his arms.

"Then Tachyon came. He sent ten cronies after the guy, who sustained minimal damage while defeating them in combat. Tachyon himself pinned the guy against the wall. When he demanded the Dimensionator's location, the guy refused. Tachyon stabbed him, and he slumped to the floor.

"Some lombaxes came in and chased off Tachyon, then tended to the one on the floor. Alister, at least I think it was him, talked to the guy. Whatever he was saying made Alister look like he was throwing up in his pants. The guy fell over and died. He looked just like me," added Ratchet at the end. "Clank, those two people who died in there, the lombaxes- I think they were-" Ratchet's eyes shone with tears, and he buried his head in his hands. Clank, however, did not need to hear what Ratchet was about to say next to feel his sorrow: Those two who perished in their own home had been Ratchet's parents.

Clank could relate to the death of his father. But Ratchet grew up as an orphan. Clank's mother, a supercomputer, decided, along with Orvus, to disrupt the programming in Clank's system and make him for good. Ratchet had no choice. His parents died to protect him. All he had was faint memories of his parents until now.

Clank put a loving hand on Ratchet's bare back. He was too used to the feeling, as Ratchet usually started their adventures tossing his old armor away and using nothing but pants and a wrench when they started out. "Ratchet, I know how difficult it is. They died for you. It was their choice. You've done nothing wrong to them." Ratchet's voice was bitter when he replied. "You've seen your father in flesh and blood in the past four cycles. I've only seen my parents for two. I didn't know that for the rest of my life, I'd never see them again."

Clank's eyes were full of sadness. "You've done great things in their name."

"Then why the hell do I feel like I've only given them misleading?"

"You haven't, Ratchet." A new, female voice joined the two. Ratchet and Clank spun around to see Angela Cross.

Angela Cross was an old face. She had a blue cap with holes for both her ears and her ponytail, and was six feet six inches tall. She wore blue armor and had blue eyes. She had the same fur type as Ratchet, but she was very clumsy, and usually put Ratchet's life in danger trying to rescue her. However, she had no tail. That was one of the only ways to tell the difference between a male and a female lombax.

The pair of heroes had chased her over half the galaxy, thinking she was a thief, stealing the top file ProtoPet experiment. When they caught her, she told them that they had screwed up, and that she was protecting it from Captain Steve Copernicus Leslie McQwark.

For obvious reasons, the captain was called Captain Qwark by the galaxy. He planned to mutate the ProtoPet, then defeat it in order to earn his fame back and shove the fuzzy lombax and his friend to the side. But when he failed, he ran his ass off to the pair. They defeated the ProtoPet, gaining more fame and a bonus kiss from, in Ratchet's words, the "fair maiden," Angela Cross. She had accompanied them on their adventures ever since.

When Angela walked in the room, Ratchet thought about this and it was ironic that she had almost killed him all those times, and that they were engaged. The second thing he was worried about was that he was wearing only underwear. He frantically covered up, and went to his closet for fresh clothes. While he was digging around, Angela tried to help him lose some of his guilt.

"We know your pain, Ratchet. Just cheer up. We've been engaged." Angela's words hit home in Ratchet's ears. They were engaged... they could lay low... leave the heroism to Qwark and others... raise a family...

He shook this out of his mind. Thinking about family made him think about his parents, and he was back in his sorrowful demeanor, wishing that it was him in his father's place...

"Tachyon's gone, Ratchet. Nefarious is gone. Doesn't that cheer you up just a bit?" Ratchet heard this and thought about it deeply. _These statements can't be true. We thought Nefarious died ten cycles ago, when I met Sasha. Those two are still alive, and Nefarious was "killed" four more times. And Tachyon...I don't think he died. He was right about my parents, as Clank's scanners suggested, and he fell off the platform, but I didn't feel as victorious as I usually do. There's just something not right. He didn't just fall down and die, but what the hell actually happened? _He finished the conversation in his head and turned back to his fiance and his friend.

Angela and Clank were staring at him awkwardly. Ratchet said, "What? Did I miss something?" Clank and Angela looked at each other. Clank mustered up the energy to talk. "Judging by the blank expression on your face for the past thirty seconds, you've been pondering whether or not they really are dead." Angela intervened between him and Clank, and said, "That, and you didn't put clothes on, you took them off."

Ratchet looked down. He was indeed naked. _Oh, shit. _He ran to the closet and locked himself in it. He emerged two minutes later with his old armor they had used on their last adventure. It brought back painful memories: he had died in this armor. He had made Alister kill himself to stop his doings. He failed to save Clank's father in this armor. He was not fond of it, but it kept him alive, and for that he was grateful.

"Now, putting that behind us, I need to discuss something with you two," said Ratchet in a business-like tone. Angela showed a slight hint of fear in her sparkling blue eyes. "What would that 'something' be?"

"If those two really are dead or not."

Though he could not read minds, Clank had known for a long time that Ratchet would say this, but he was dreading it nonetheless. He tried to keep everything about him normal and said in a calm voice, "Where do you want to start?" Ratchet answered almost immediately, "Nefarious. He's evaded more certain-death scenarios than Daxter. Those two are the same. He wouldn't play dead now. That's unlike Nefarious's programming. He would immediately get back up on his feet and call for another round, no matter how... beat up he was," said Ratchet, looking at Angela guiltily. She knew what this meant: He was cleaning his mouth so she wouldn't break up with him. She replied, "I really don't care, Ratchet," with a coy smile.

"As I was saying," said Ratchet, Angela's flirting with him shaking his confidence, "we can't be sure Nefarious is truly dead. He's probably on an asteroid right now, Lawrence with him." Angela nodded her head in agreement. Clank followed, putting his hand on his chin and staring at the ceiling above Ratchet's head, apparently thinking hard.

"What about Tachyon, Ratchet?" said Clank in an unsure voice, as though he didn't want to be asking. "Well..." said Ratchet slowly, "Do you remember how he sort of fell down. We don't know if the Dimensionator or Tachyon could have survived or not. Given that I think he-"

"-transported to another dimension, most likely the current location of the lombaxes. " It was Angela who finished Ratchet's sentence this time, and she looked surprised that she remembered what had happened; she was used to poor memories. Nonetheless, she had a point. They had attacked Tachyon after he warped all four of them into the ground that Tachyon had an advantage on. The stones he was standing on gave way, and he fell down, but the Dimensionator came back up. No one knew why, until now.

"This is not good. His tech was too damn advanced for the lombaxes the first time, and it will be better this time." Ratchet stared at Clank as though he had never seen him before. Until then, Ratchet had never known Clank to swear when something was not good; he was the man for that. "Clank, are you all right? You're acting a little strange..."

"It's probably just a bug in my system. You can fix it later," came the reply, calm as ever. Ratchet breathed a sigh of relief. Clank was indeed Clank. He turned to Angela and asked, more to her than Clank, "There's one more question- where is the Dimensionator? I didn't pick it up as a souvenir."

Angela nodded her head in agreement. "I know. It's probably where we left it. But without the first portal... it could take a million cycles." Ratchet smirked at these words, confusing both of his thinking partners. Clank said, "What's with the smirk, Ratchet? Have you been replaced by an evil twin, as well?" Ratchet said, "Come on, Clank, you know how crafty I am. I upgraded my nav unit to scan, identify, and keep anywhere I've been. If we look at the destination between the two places I was before and after Tachyon saved his own ass, we'll see exactly where we were when he went down."

"That's something I've admired in you, Ratchet, your craftiness and genius," said Clank. "We should find our missing destination, and the Dimensionator with it.

Ratchet removed his nav unit from his belt and plugged it into his supercomputer. He pulled up the information from the nav unit and started from the last four cycles. He muttered the destinations under his breath- "Iris, Pokitaru, Tellerius..." Clank and Angela bent over him, watching him work, looking for the two planets before and after they witnessed Tachyon's transportation: Ytter and their current location on Fastoon. Ratchet's constant muttering seemed to calm them all; therefore, they found it easier to concentrate on the two planets.

Half an hour later, and they still could not find their planet. They ran through many destinations of Fastoon and Ytter, but nothing in between. They were so far fruitless.

Angela finally gave in to impatience. "Why the hell isn't it on here? We're looking for a goddamned needle in a haystack!" Ratchet had to raise his voice to be heard over Angela's ranting. "Wait, Angela! I found something!" The news seemed to calm Angela at once, and she walked over to see it.

"See, look, we've found Ytter and Fastoon. Now, look in the middle. What's the exact destination?"

Angela looked at the destination in disbelief. "No. That can't be right. No way. Are you sure, Ratchet?"

Ratchet looked at her and said, "I guess so."

She double-checked the computer. It was not lying. She tried to get the impossible out of her eyes, but they seemed to be imprinted on the inside of her eyelids. She slumped over, and Ratchet ran to help her, setting her on the bed. She had fainted. He looked again. _So that's where it is. I can't believe I didn't notice it sooner._

The missing destination was Palladus, home of the Cragmites. The minute Ratchet saw it portray its name on his screen, he had memories bombard his brain: Tachyon causing him to fall off a cliff, him under the gigantic foot of Tachyon's mobile throne. He had a lot of memories of that centipede, most of which were of Tachyon, who was not the first person hellbent on complete galactic domination that Ratchet had had to deal with. Ratchet's instinct was the only reason he survived their many encounters. Then, he felt it made no difference. Now, he knew the value of split seconds.

"I assumed so," said Clank, with an I-told-you-so mood. "If he wanted a battle, he would, like any, want it with a home advantage."

"Well, your logic processors once again never cease to amaze me," sighed Ratchet. "Once she wakes up-" He gestured towards Angela as he spoke, "-we might as well head there first thing." Clank nodded his head in agreement. "That would be the smartest thing to do. The sooner we get there and find Tachyon, the faster we can stop his scheming once and for all." Ratchet smirked; if there was one thing Clank was gullible about, it was agreeing with his lombax friend.

"Pack your toothbrush and jammies, Clank. We're in for a long trip."


	3. Chapter 3- Secrets of the Lombaxes

**Chapter 3**

**Secrets of the Lombaxes**

"Let's see...wrench, X-20MP, spare armor, spare magazines, medkits, repair tools..."

Ratchet muttered as he checked off what he would need for their journey to Palladus; it was argued by space pilots and traders to be to be the most dangerous and hostile planet in the galaxy. Ratchet could tell that what they had seen at their fight with Tachyon was not as bad as it got there. Soft moaning reached his ears; without looking, he knew Angela had woken from her sleep.

"What're you doing, Ratchet?" asked Angela sleepily.

"Packing," came the reply. "We're heading for Palladus in about four hours. That should give you time to grab your gear so we can find the Dimensionator and stop this before it becomes a huge threat. If you need it, I'll help." There must have been something about Ratchet's voice that worried Angela, perhaps the calmness of his voice; she threw herself off the bed and began running about, gathering what she would need.

Ratchet double-checked his items, making sure everything was functional: He made sure there was medical equipment in the medpacks, he had his laser attachment for his wrench, which, when engaged, would make his wrench act like a laser sword. The attachment was one of his favorite possessions, cutting through enemies and sealing off the wounds immediately, so he wouldn't have blood all over him when he was finished. He was fond of it, and thought it a handy little gadget.

He drove these thoughts out of his head and started checking where he had left off. The last things he had to check were his armor and his gun. After attaching a silencer, so as not to cause panic for Angela or Clank, then loading a special paint bullet clip in his X-20, he set up his armor. He aimed at his suit and fired. The paint bullets splattered on the armor, never penetrating. Ratchet saw this as a good sign, for on direct contact, the paint bullets were rated for lethality as much as standard energy charges were rated. His blaster fired accurately and was as much of a machine pistol as ever.

Smiling with much satisfaction, Ratchet reloaded, this time loading real energy bullets and tuning the safety to "ON." _This ought to make the Crags think twice- if they have a head when I'm finished with them_. While he visualized this, he winced, knowing two things: One was that Cragmites were the most ugly-ass creatures in the galaxy, the other was when they got shot, they had a tendency to self-destruct, leaving their killers in Cragmite guts. Ratchet was usually never squeamish; killing a Crag was the only exception.

"Are you finished packing?" came Clank's voice. Ratchet looked to see him standing in the doorway. For some reason, he looked like he was keeping something from Ratchet.

"You look a little funny, Clank. Are you all right?" Ratchet looked at Clank with an uneasiness. "Yes, I am fine. I just happen to have one more surprise for you," replied Clank. "Wait here." And with that ominous note, Clank turned and left the doorway, immediately replaced by Angela. She looked like someone had purposely blown a giant dust cloud over her. Ratchet looked at her as if he had never seen her properly before.

"What happened to you?"

Angela had an exhausted air about her; her heavy panting helped Ratchet reach this conclusion. "Oh, never mind that. I've got my bags and I'm ready to-"

"Hold on, wait. _Bags_?" Ratchet looked at her in an odd way. "You'll probably only need just one."

"Well, my blaster wouldn't fit in one bag."

"Must have been a big-ass blaster," muttered Ratchet, more to himself than anyone else. "What model?"

"Well, if it makes a difference, I found it in that cutaway segment under the rug in the living room."

"_What_?" Ratchet exclaimed in an unbelieving tone. "How did you find something we had no idea about just _lying_ there? Are there, like, _ hinges _or something? Did you step on a button under the rug?"

"Well, no... my bags were too heavy for the floor, and I found..." Angela's voice trailed away with uncertainty.

Ratchet sprinted out into his living room. He found his living room in ruins: The middle of the floorboards, made from the toughest wood in the galaxy, coming from the Yabaam tree, were in a caved-in position, splinters everywhere. The rug was nowhere to be found above the ground; the cutaway had swallowed it.

Angela, who had followed Ratchet, asked him, "What should we do about this?"

"About what?"

Clank spoke this time, having just entered the room. He saw the room, and his eyes grew wide. "Oh, my. My, my, my. How did this happen?"

Ratchet and Angela shared an awkward look. "It's... kind of a long story," said Ratchet. Then remembering Angela was completely covered in dirt, he turned and said to her, "Why don't you go take a shower? Clank and I'll go down and see what's going on." Angela nodded, and headed for the bathroom.

Clank and Ratchet looked at each other; they had faced the unknown together so much that it was becoming second nature. "Let's start by cleaning out some more of this debris, then we can go and see what's in there," said Ratchet. Clank heeded him, and began to scrape away the remains of the mess Angela's bags had made.

"Well, we know why Angela's bags fell through. The rest of the house's wood is thick, but these are like plywood," said Ratchet as they cleared the entry. "Everything else works like pykrete. It seems like something a smuggler or a spy would do."

"Indeed, Ratchet. But let's focus on getting inside right now."

"Well, I have the last piece right here, so let's go down and up and wherever this thing leads to," Ratchet said, and the pair slid down the entry ramp. No sooner had they entered than they felt the light on their backs disappear. Ratchet got to his feet and looked up; the slide of sorts was only six feet long. When Ratchet looked up, he saw what he had never seen before: the hole had sealed itself.

"My God, this is high-tech stuff," Clank commented; he had turned around too. "I have never seen this before. Ooh-" he added, as though he had just thought of it "-it could turn out to be a mystery."

"Yeah, sure, well... all I can see is your dim eyes. You _can _see what's around us, right? Even with your sensors, I can't see, so unless you can see, we're screwed."

"Yes, I can see, and there is only one passageway. It starts on your left." Ratchet spun on Clank's words and walked. Clank started to give him directions, and Ratchet picked up on them. They walked slowly; they didn't want Ratchet to bump into a wall. It was quite a maze of a passageway, with twists and turns, uphills and downhills, sometimes even circling itself. How Angela had found the weapon, Ratchet did not know, however, he knew he wanted Clank to lead the way. Ten minutes in, he finally asked Clank to help him see.

"Clank, can you get in front of me?"

"Of course, Ratchet," came the reply. Clank came out from under Ratchet's legs and turned around to face his friend. "Do you want me to do something?"

"Yeah, hold on for just one sec." Ratchet felt around for his tracking beacon. _Ah, there it is!_ He took out his tracking beacon. He activated it, which made it glow red. He proceeded to put it on Clank's forehead. "There," he said with satisfaction, "now I can see. Lead the way."

The passageway did not let up on its mind-boggling layout. The two continued to search for something unnatural, but to no avail. They grew restless, until some blue light mixed in with the red beacon twenty minutes later. Ratchet was the first to respond to this phenomenon.

"This must have been very important for someone. The place was really hard to get to. Now to throw back the red curtain and reveal the stars of the show."

The light was coming from a left turn. They obliged, and entered a room which, to Ratchet, seemed to be filled with blinding light. When his eyes adjusted, a breathtaking sight met them, causing him to laugh momentarily.

The room was circular, with blue lighting and built from some sort of metal. It was filled with weapons and war equipment. There were assault rifles, PDWs, pistols, sniper rifles, rocket launchers, shotguns, machine guns, machine pistols, armor, and every type of grenade imaginable. In the very center of the room, there stood a table with a gun resting on it, its body slowly flashing red, making it stand out in the blue room. Ratchet looked at Clank, and could tell the tiny robot had been informed of every weapon in the room: Clank tended to stand still when he was processing excessively large quantities of data at a time.

"If I were you, I wouldn't stand there, I would check everything out." said Ratchet. Clank looked at him, and saw the glint of metal entering his armor. Perhaps it was a trick of the light- no. Ratchet was used to pocketing things; it was one of his qualities growing up. Nevertheless, Ratchet's voice seemed to bring Clank back down, and he obediently started picking up weapons. A specific machine gun caught his eye. He picked it up with little difficulty, which was no easy feat for a three-foot tall robot. He looked it over, rotating it so he could scrutinize every last bit of the gun. He found the name printed on the side: M-14X7. But it was written in ancient Lombax. _Hmm, this is a fitting name. How the lombaxes got this printed on the weapon, however, I don't know,_ thought Clank to himself. He scanned it a few more times, then Ratchet said something he knew would be bad,

"This one seems like fun."

Clank spun around to see Ratchet holding the gun that had been on the center table. He dropped the M-14 and sprinted to Ratchet, knocking the gun down. "What the hell was that for?" cried Ratchet, angry at Clank for rudely confiscating his weapon. "I know that tone, Ratchet. You were about to shoot it." Ratchet snorted in disbelief. "I was _looking_ at it. I need to know the name of this thing." He picked it up, making sure the safety was on. He looked and found it on the right side of the gun. It was named the SureShot, once again written in Lombax. It could only fire one bullet at a time, like one of the old 9-mil semi-autos that were almost out of existence. But there was something about that particular gun that made Ratchet's morale seem to boost; he felt as if it was a long-lost friend.

He holstered it, and began looking for more things he could use to his advantage. He stared around the room, taking in every detail. Something was familiar about it, almost like he had known it for years. Then a thought occurred to him. No one in the galaxy had seen this tech for years. The most advanced weapons were made during the Great War. And that must have meant...

"The lombaxes used this!"

"Yes, I was thinking the same thing. Though what any of these do, I have no idea." Clank usually spoke as he thought, which sometimes got him in uncomfortable situations. This time, however, Ratchet smiled.

"I have an idea... just maybe... maybe they were prototypes," said Ratchet.

"Well, how can we tell?"

"Oh, let's see... there!" Ratchet pointed to a medical needle, like one a doctor would use for a vaccine. Ratchet strode over and picked it up, carefully examining the semi-solid, metallic-colored liquid inside. "An injection...hmm..." Clank had heard this tone, and he knew what was about to happen.

"RATCHET, NO!"

He ran to Ratchet, trying to stop him, but it was too late. Ratchet had injected the needle into his left arm. Immediately, his arm started seizing up, and Ratchet yelled out in pain as his pupils contracted. He stopped moving for a brief second, then threw himself on the ground, clutching his arm and rolling around, as if he was surrounded by demons. Clank could do nothing to stop it. He could only watch, seeing his friend roll around in pure agony, knowing that Ratchet would certainly die...

Then, just when Clank lost hope, and turned his back on his friend, Ratchet stopped. He was breathing heavily, as though he had run through the maze of a passageway that they had taken to get to the room. Ratchet lay there for a minute, staring at the blue ceiling. He pushed his head and torso up, using his arms. As he did this, he noted that his left arm felt more powerful than his right. Ratchet got up, and stared at his left arm. When he saw it, he did not know if it was good or bad.

His left arm was metal. At least, it looked like it. His fur coat was a light metallic silver, while his stripes were darker. He did not know what it would do when he used it, so he wiggled his fingers. They wiggled as his brain told them to. _Well, that's good. I can still shoot a gun. Now to see __how it reacts to a flex. _Fully aware that Clank was watching, Ratchet flexed his left arm.

Instantaneously, his arm started transforming. Some kind of polished metal seemed to fold over his arm. It took shape of his arm, all the way from his shoulder to the tips of his fingers. When it had finished, his arm made him appear to be a cyborg: His arm was covered in polished metal, and starting at his elbow, there formed a Gatling gun, which, incredibly, was easy for Ratchet to lift. He could not see the location of his hand but he could tell it was in the center of the gun. His index finger found the trigger, but he did not fire. "Dude, Clank, can you see this? I'm a freakin' cyborg!"

Clank smiled at Ratchet's words, and he said, "Well, now you don't have to worry about dying when you lose your gun in a fight."

"You got that right. Let's get most of these and bring them up," said Ratchet, turning his new weapon back into an arm. "Tachyon is very quick about conquering, so..." He shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what the hell's going to happen. Let's find an alternate route, I don't want to spend an hour in that maze."

"Well, there's a door right there."

Ratchet turned around, and there it was. The door was in the shape of a trapezoid, and not easy to find. "Well, let's load up." They took a vast majority of the weapons in the room, and Ratchet grabbed the handle. When he did, he and Clank were sucked through the door and landed in a dark space. Ratchet could not see anything, but he heard Clank's voice say something that relieved him of his anxiety:

"There's the entryway."

Ratchet breathed a huge sigh of relief; he would not fancy finding the way back through the maze carrying the equipment he had just now. He turned around and knew what had happened. Turning around, he shared his theory with Clank.

"That must be a faux-solid wall, designed to make sure enemies lost their way in this place." Clank nodded his agreement. "Only one who had been informed of this would know of it. It's rather a very good war tactic," he said. Ratchet knew this: the lombaxes were a very advanced race, from what he could tell from Alister's talk. The guy could hardly stop rhapsodizing about the lombax race and their might."Well, let's get moving," he said, starting to grow tired from the weight of the weapons and armor. Clank obliged, and the two moved up. The minute they were touching the floor on the house above them, the floor opened, and they climbed slowly out.

The pair dumped the gear on the floor. They heard water coming from the bathroom, and they knew Angela was still showering. She must have heard them, because she said, "Wow! What happened in there? You guys are late!" Ratchet traded a look with Clank, then said, "We'll tell you when you come out." He knew her curiosity would be answered later: They had more important things to discuss.

Ratchet was the first to talk about the matter. "That was a lab. I'm sure of it. It must have been built during the Great War, because everything was written in Lombax. The question now is was it-"

"-secret or not, I believe," Clank finished. "Nevertheless, it obviously played a major role in the Great War. Though we do need to know if it was a secret lab of not. I'm placing my credits on secret."

"Well, I think our curiosity may finally come to rest," said Ratchet, reaching for his pocket as he spoke. "I just so happened to nick a transmission recorder from one of the tables." He held up a briefcase-sized box, red paint worn and scratched with age. "Shall we?"

"Indeed. This could help us in our quest. We need all the data we can get," said Clank.

Ratchet put the recorder on the table, then began to start it. The only problem was that he did not check to see where the start button was. He searched and searched, looking for a button, until he finally gave up and started yelling. Then something occurred to him. It could be voice-activated.

"Hey, wait a minute. It might be opened by a word or phrase, maybe an oath." Clank said nothing, but Ratchet knew that he was silently agreeing with him. "Let's try it," was all he said.

"I...Ratchet Darkstar...do solemnly swear...to pledge allegiance...to the queen of Metropolis...and her mighty state of hysteria..." He looked at Clank. When the robot shook his head, Ratchet tried again.

"To infinity and beyond."

Clank started giggling like a schoolgirl. Ratchet shook this off, and tried again, this time losing his patience and walking around it, yelling.

"By the power of the wrench. What the _hell_? Come on, if you're in a hard-to-find, goddamn cache, you think you can just playback when I-" The recorder reacted when Ratchet said "playback." As a result, the pair were knocked off their feet as a shockwave of sorts filled the room. When everything cleared, an amazing sight met their eyes.

It was a lombax. Not a real lombax, but a hologram. It seemed to awe the pair nevertheless, and they listened intently. The lombax started its transmission.

"This is Alpha Forty-Nine calling Base, clearance code X048S1OE8. We have a bit of a situation here." The lombax's voice was gruff, indicating it was a male. He was nervous, judging by the fact he looked around with every other sentence, and kept fingering his blaster. His fur color was unknown; lombax transmissions were apparently light blue when they were played. "It's worse than we expected. Tachyon has more than Cragmites at his disposal. He has robots, called the Imitators. They are designed to have a skeleton like that of a lombax. Their only flaw is that they are _completely_ metal. They have tech centennicycles beyond what we're using. I managed to nab a seemingly stand-ish blaster from a bot that was still on the assembly line." He picked up a blaster from the ground, which revealed that his hand were trembling. It was a light machine gun, and its name was printed on the side in Cragnese.

"It's named the _Apocalypse _for a good reason. Only me and Thirty-Two have survived this far. More are coming. The Keeper must be warned: It is time. Get everybody, everything, and get the hell out of here." Somewhere, out of sight, the sound of a gun cocking filled the room, followed by energy charges. Alpha Forty-Nine spun to his right and started firing, until he was hit. He fell backward, bleeding freely. A robot walked into the sight of the transmission.

The robot was lombax-like, except it was a skeleton, complete with ears. It had no covering, and therefore its wires could be seen, and its face was a skull, grinning ominously. Its gun could only be fired from its robotic hip. The Imitator in the transmission must have decided to make absolutely sure Alpha Forty-Nine was dead, because it kicked him, hard. His body flew out of sight of the transmission, leaving the robot to be the only thing in sight of the pair's eyes. It looked at the recorder, and fired.

Alpha Forty-Nine's transmission ended there, and Ratchet looked at Clank, his wide eyes full of fear. Clank followed suit, and they sat in silence for a moment. Clank was the first to break the silence. "That's not good. This explains why the lombaxes were so quick to transport: Because of these robots. Tachyon could have started all over again."

"Knowing that Bonaparte, he probably did. This isn't good."

"Hey, guys. Er...what _is_ that thing?" Angela had entered the room, bath towels wrapped around her. Ratchet looked solemnly at her, and said,

"That's a transmitter."

"Is that what I heard? I thought Qwark had come over or something. What happened?"  
Ratchet looked at Clank, and recounted what they had seen in the transmission. Angela's jaw dropped, and she was speechless.

"He could have started over again!" she said.

"That's what we thought."

"It could have taken him a long time, but he could have!"

"He gets back up on his feet quickly, though. I figure, depending on when we get there, there won't be lombaxes left."

"We need to go right now!"  
"Well, get something on first! I don't think Tachyon's gonna stop his assault if you flash him!"

Ratchet had never seen Angela dress so fast; she went in and came out within thirty seconds, with punk-like clothes on. She dashed to her bags, scooped them up, and ran for Ratchet's ship, his prized A-75, one of the best fighters in the galaxy. Ratchet followed her example, throwing the majority of the weapons and armor into the bag, running to his ship: He would experiment with armor combinations while en route. Clank gathered the remainders of the things they had collected and followed the other two. He made it out to the ship in time to see Ratchet boarding the last of his bags.

_Road trip,_ thought Ratchet, sighing heavily. He clambered into the cockpit and started the engines. Ratchet set the ship to autopilot, and they lifted off and flew into space, not knowing they would not see their home on Veldin for a long time.


	4. Chapter 4- Mercs over Aridia

Before you read, I just want to throw an announcement out there. Me and YellowDizzyLomax are currently making plans for a story about a squad in the Praetorian Guard during the time of the Great War. OC's and game chars are included. I'm tellin ya, you don't want to miss this.

Back to reading. Enjoy the chapter. :)

**Chapter 4**

**Mercs Over Aridia**

The crimson red ship soared majestically through space, as though a beacon for others to follow while they were on their long journey in a seemingly endless black void, illuminated by stars and planets. Inside the ship, Ratchet, Angela, and Clank did not have such a view. The only thing they could see was what was in front of them: Their journey to Palladus. Ratchet was piloting the ship, correcting it whenever it went off course. He started to talk to the other two, giving them a step-by-step plan of what would happen.

"Once we get into orbit, I'll use my nav unit to track the exact coordinates of our last visit on Palladus. When we get there, be ready for resistance, no matter how big or small: Tach will have stationed guards there. I know him. Get to cover, and take them out. I have a silencer for my X-20." He picked up the silencer he had used for his armor check, allowing the two to see it. He grabbed his X-20 and attached the silencer, so he was ready for combat.

"When we're done, haul ass. We can't risk being out there for too long. Treat your weapons with caution; we still need to find out what they do."

"Well, that can't take long if it's as bad as you think. We'll be shooting at Crags for our lives," said Angela.

Clank agreed. "We must be ready for anything, Ratchet." Ratchet knew this: did they not think he knew what would be on the road ahead of them? Why did he tell Clank to take all of the weapons? Why did Angela pack the blaster from the room, then tell him and Clank about it? The answer was simple: the unknown. No one within this dimension knew what was in the Void; no one knew the danger the lombaxes faced. He refrained from saying this out loud, and satisfied himself with a wardrobe change.

"I need to go put some of that armor to good use. I'm engaging autopilot now. I'll be out in a few."

He grabbed the bag he had thrown the armor in and went to his quarters. _For a bucket of bolts this small, these things are deceptively large_, he thought. _Gears could host a concert in here and there would be lots of space left_. _Sheesh._ He threw on a suit of armor that was mainly white, with blue stripes down the center of the torso, curving sharply around a green circle in the middle of his chest, next to his heart. The helmet was white, too; its visor, however, was completely green, and Ratchet wondered if it was for night vision.

_Hmm. It _looked_ badass before I put it on, now let's see what it looks like with me attached_. He walked over to his mirror, and found himself in a white torso. He lowered the visor over his head ever so gently until the only thing he could see was green. The visor was green for decoration, but Ratchet wondered if he could restore clear vision without changing the outside tint, sort of like a one-way mirror. No sooner had he thought this than had the visor done exactly as he wished; he could see everything.

_Good looks don't count for much when you're pinned down, though. Guess I ought to test it._ He used the same method he had with his old armor, and was pleased to see there was hardly a scratch on it.

"No wonder the lombaxes were dominant; they were too smart," he muttered to himself. "Let's hope they're holding off whatever the hell Tachyon's throwing at-"

The ship rocked, knocking Ratchet off his feet and slamming him into the wall. He rose shakily to his feet, sporting a bloody nose. He wasted no time in running to the cockpit, where Angela and Clank were on the floor.

"What the _hell_ was that?"

"That's what I wondered," said Ratchet. He looked out of the ship's starboard wing camera, and saw three Aridian-marked ships in a V formation, closing in fast.

"_Mercs!_ Clank, get the ship back to manual. I'm going to take a couple potshots. Angela, get the gun below," he de-manded. The other two ran to obey his orders, and he ran to the ladder that led to ship's roof weapon . Ratchet knew he was at an advantage, because both he and Angela were perfect for their current positions. He found his first target and fired.

The ship exploded, its main body flying backwards while the wings comically sailed by, as if there was another, but invisible, ship flying in front of them. The other two ships rolled to avoid the debris from the first, and both succeeded. Ratchet lined up with another ship's engine. He was about to fire when the ship exploded, a long, green energy beam neatly severing wing from body. _Angela's done it again_, thought Ratchet, satisfying himself with a smirk.

_Two down, one to go_. He did not line up; he knew he did not need to. Suddenly, static buzzed on Ratchet's comlink, and heard a familiar voice.

"Look, if this is about those goddamn weapons I sold ya, I'm sorry, okay? You just have to learn to work the things!"

It was an old friend, Keanu the Smuggler. He and his red parrot had given Ratchet weapons and much more at large prices, but he was still an ally. He immediately yelled into his comlink-

"Angela, _cease fire!_"

No more charges were shot. Keanu laughed and said to Ratchet, "How's the Furball doin', huh?" Ratchet rolled his eyes. "We're going to Palladus to find the Dimensionator," he said, pretending to ignore Keanu's remark.

Silence rang from Ratchet's comlink, and he would have paid a million bolts to see the look on Keanu's face. The parrot seemed to think it funny, because the next thing Ratchet knew, the parrot had caused him to burst out in laughter, for the parrot had said, "What's on your mind, monkey butt?"

Ignoring this, Keanu repeated, "The Dimensionator? That legendary thing the lombaxes used?"

"That's the one," said Ratchet, while climbing down the ladder that led to the cockpit. "We could use a little more manpower; we don't know what we're up against. If you want in, you're in. But if you back out, that's fine too."

"No, no, I'll come," said Keanu. "Sounds rather..._fun_, actually." Ratchet smirked; he had not known Keanu actually _liked_ his job, if you could call it that.

"Alright, follow us to-" he started to say, but Keanu interrupted, "I'm a smuggler! I know where everything is!" Ratchet collapsed in a heap of laughter.

"I'm just screwin' around! We should be there in about five seconds. Engaging hyperspeed...and...go."

Blue light surrounded them as they were thrown back into their seats. As they pulled themselves up off the ground, Ratchet said, "Inertia's a bitch sometimes."

"Agreed," said Clank. He then added-

"Isn't the calculation for inertia, like, mass times gravity times height or something?"

"Yeah," said Ratchet. "Put that together and it spells 'my guts hurt.'"

"Well, we're coming up on Palladus, so we should be ready for anything."

"Hey, guys. Sorry about that. Lost contact for a while. What do we do when we get there?" Keanu had restored communications with them. Ratchet was the first to answer.

"_Now _you need to follow us."

They came up on Palladus. It was a green world, almost like Pokitaru, except not as tropical. It was a forest, the whole thing. It wasn't depressing, but it wasn't exactly a romantic getaway at the same time.

"This is where you have to listen," said Ratchet. "Keanu, engage your cloaking device. We'll go in stealth mode. Once we're on the ground, I'll eliminate hostiles and get the Dimensionator. Obviously, I'll do the honors as well."

"Copy that, Furball. Engaging cloaking device now."

They soared into the atmosphere, then flew as low as they could to escape any enemy radar. Ratchet landed his ship in a circular clearing. _That's odd. What are the chances of finding one of these just lying around?_ He asked Keanu out loud, "Do you know anything about this?"

"Hell no," came the reply. "I wonder if they were expecting us."

Ratchet scoffed into his comlink. "Yeah, I hope not. Then again, there may be a cheese platter..."

Ratchet jumped out of the ship, accompanied by Angela and Clank. Keanu must have been trying to grab his overly mischievous parrot: Even from the outside, Keanu's ship was rocking, and Ratchet saw a shadow of Keanu leaping for the bird, then slamming headfirst into the steering wheel, deploying the airbag. Keanu came out with his bird perched on his shoulder, and he was panting heavily.

"You done screwin' around? We have work to do."  
Keanu gave him a reproachful look. "The damn bird don't take orders," he said, ignoring the parrot's crowing, "Hands off, braaack, hands off."

Ratchet smirked. "Well, the Dimensionator's not here. Strange. Crags must have taken it somewhere. That being said, let's go."

They sprinted through the forest, sticking to cover the whole way. Ratchet felt it unnecessary. After all, why would Cragmites be stationed on every square inch of the planet. Pushing this aside, he continued, very reluctantly, with sticking to cover. The group encountered their first Cragmite within twenty minutes.

"Assault class," murmured Ratchet to the others. "Weapon model- Kronos. IQ level- not that high. Should be easy to take out." He raised his X-20 and fired.

The charge hit the Cragmite cleanly between the eyes, causing its head to explode into a giant flash of orange. The other three looked on in awe. Angela was the first to comment.

"Wow. You're a really good shot!"

Ratchet, however, looked perplexed.

"But... I was aiming for his chest. And I never miss."

He released the clip from the gun and held it to his eyes. He laughed with surprise. Turning to the others, he said with a hint of laughter in his voice, "Well, there's your problem. This ammo is cerebro-centric."

"What the hell is-"

"Cerebro-centric. It basically means 'brain locator.' It fires, and it automatically aims for their head. Ought to come in handy once we find the lombaxes."

"Well, can we get on with it? I don't want to find dead lombaxes everywhere."

They decided to go with Keanu's wishes, and ran towards what was hopefully the Dimensionator. After ten minutes of sprinting from cover to cover, Angela stopped and looked around warily. Ratchet noticed this, and he asked her, "What is it?"

"I... don't know. Something just doesn't seem right."

"Like we're being watched?"

"That's probably it."

"Well, why are we standing arou- AGHH!"

A shadow had leapt out from behind a tree with lightning speed and slammed into Ratchet, knocking him over. The other three whipped around, guns raised, staring at the shadow that was looking down at Ratchet.

"Put them down," it said, looking at the weapons. That voice was familiar. Ratchet seized his chance and grabbed the stranger's foot with his legs, and pulling it out from under him. The stranger fell down, and Ratchet pounced on him and pinned him down. The voice sounded familiar, but he didn't want to take any chances: The stranger had already come close to killing him.

"Who are you?"

"He-hey, take it easy. I'm the Sly Guy, remember?"

"When you say 'Sly Guy,' you mean the fat not-so-Superman in green spandex, right?"

It was Qwark. Ratchet should have known. He could not count how many times Qwark had tried to do him in. How he knocked Ratchet off his feet, though, was anyone's guess. Last time he had checked, Qwark had only leveled Ratchet with the ground by using an explosive barrel, which was part of his plan of stealing "this doohickey," in Qwark's words, then shooting himself, along with the Dimensionator, into a black hole. That didn't work for him; he was very much alive. Qwark spoke from the ground, in a lock Ratchet had put him in.

"_I want in_!" he yelled straight at Ratchet, covering the lombax's face with spit. "I want to help! I want to save the lombaxes!" He looked away and added, in a sheepish voice, "I just love the cute things."

Ratchet seriously doubted this, and decided to persuade Qwark into his real ambitions. "Yeah, I don't think so," he said in a casual, loose voice. "We're kind of pushing the limit as it is, and-" Just as he imagined, Qwark spilled the beans.

"Alright! Alright! You're pretty damned tenacious, ya know that? It's the only way I'll be recognized as a hero! Please, _please _let me come!"

"See, _there _we go," said Ratchet, letting Qwark get up. "They're not that cute when they're shoving questions up your ass, are they? All right, as long as you don't try to do us in. You got that?"

Qwark nodded, at the same time making a high-pitched "Mm-hmm" in his throat.

Ratchet looked at his four companions, and said, "Well, come on. We've wasted enough time as it is." No sooner had he finished, than a green charge whizzed right past his eyes, almost hitting Ratchet. "_Get __down_!" he yelled, and no one needed telling twice. He himself dove for a tree, barely finding cover from their attackers.

_Time to see if my arm mod actually works_. He flexed his arm, making his chaingun modification fold over his arm. He raised his arm toward the noise and fired.

He could not see what had happened to their attackers; he did not want to risk getting shot. He just let his gun fire incessantly until there was no noise left from the enemy guns. He risked a peek outside. When he did, he found remains of Cragmites, their guns, blood-spattered, on the ground. He signaled to the others, and they came out of hiding. Keanu was the first to speak.

"Cragmites. We could tell, the way their whole bodies exploded..."

"That was just a patrol. Do you know what this means?" asked Ratchet to the others.

"That means that Tachyon has built a base here," said Clank.

"Exactly. If he's had time to build a base, what else has he had time for? Merciless slaughter?"

No one dared answer him; he had been apocalyptic about it, but it could be true. "Now, if we're done here, and Qwark doesn't need some nice, fresh pants, let's haul ass. A base shouldn't be hard to find. Judging by their aggressiveness, they weren't far away from home base. I'd say about two miles." The others silently agreed with him; his knowledge of Cragmite tactics and behaviors was amazingly sharp.

The group sneaked towards the base, flying through the shadows and becoming almost invisible. Ratchet saw a light on the ground, unceasingly pointed toward the ground. It started to move towards him. Immediately, he darted out of its path, slamming his head into a metal wall, causing him to grunt in pain. Tenderly massaging his head, he looked ahead of him. He saw variations of Cragmites: warriors, assassins, grunts, Ultors heavy and standard, summoners, and destroyers. He signaled the others, and they wasted no time in getting to his position. The news was inevitable.

They had reached the Cragmite base.


	5. Chapter 5- Fatal Words

Before you read, I just want to throw an announcement out there. Me and YellowDizzyLomax are currently making plans for a story about a squad in the Praetorian Guard during the time of the Great War. OC's and game chars are included. I'm tellin ya, you don't want to miss this.

**Chapter 5**

**Fatal Words**

"Oh, shit."

Ratchet had said it all. There was absolutely no way they could eliminate enough Cragmites to get what they had come for. There were five of them, facing ten Cragmites and a searchlight, on a flat, boxed-in area that was just in front of the entrance of the base. All of this to protect a door leading to Tachyon's base. There was just no way. The five turned towards one another, sharing looks that showed they were all uncertain of what to do. They were just about to give up hope when Qwark, of all people, came up with a suggestion.

"Wait. How about throwing them a prime cut? They're not robots, so...," he stalled awkwardly, the eyes of the others staring at him in disbelief. Angela replied, "I thought heroes were supposed to be _smart_." Keanu smirked, and added, "That's more of a smuggling act. God knows how many sly compartments I have in my fighter." Ratchet could not take more of this arguing. "Look, will you shut up? You're not making this easier," he said in a harsh tone. The other four heeded his words, and fell silent. "Thank you."

"Now, I have a plan to get us inside; obviously that's where the Dimensionator is. Keanu, I think you have a sniper rifle, correct?"

"My own recipe," said Keanu smugly.

"Good. Then position you and your parrot on the hills and wait for my signal." Ratchet indicated a hill as he spoke. "You can teleport over there. Angela, you and Qwark will draw their attention to the front, while Clank and I take the back. Hopefully, if all goes well, Keanu, when I signal you, your goal is to eliminate the spotlight over there before Angela and Qwark fire on those troops. Split up, good luck," he finished shortly, and the group split up. Ratchet flipped Clank behind him, landing the robot on his back, and then sprinted around the side wall. He wasted no time in cutting across, and pinned himself to the wall, peeking at the Cragmites that were unaware of his presence. He reached for his comlink and whispered, "Keanu, you good?" Ratchet heard the chick-chack of Keanu's gun. "Ready as I'll ever be." Ratchet grinned, and spoke into his comlink-

"Now."

Keanu fired, and all was black. Ratchet and the others, luckily, could all see with the help of night vision goggles that they had already activated. He heard the sharp _crack_ of Keanu's rifle in the distance: Fast as the charge was, the sound always followed three seconds later. He ran in and fired, his X-20 lighting up the area. He needn't have spent all the time planning the assault, because his cerebro-centric charges found their marks every time. The headless Cragmite bodies fell to the ground in heaps of blood, their weapons useless on the floor. Ratchet signaled Keanu again, and the smuggler regrouped with the rest of the team. Angela came up to him and said-

"You _do _know that you didn't follow the plan."

Ratchet rubbed the back of his neck with his right hand and grinned sheepishly. "I was itching for a fight. Sorry."

"Oh, don't worry. I'll be back."

Angela swooped down on the bodies, searching for something. She bent over, then straightened just as quickly, holding a keycard.

"I bet we'll need these. Stand-ish Cragmites don't usually have these, now, do they?"

"Smart girl, braaack, smart girl," said Keanu's parrot, and whistled after.

Ratchet smiled and looked at the card. "You're right. Wanna do the honors?"

She obliged, taking the card back and inserting it into a slit in the wall next to the door. The slit made a confirmation sound, and the door's edges turned green. The door itself was lifted upwards, and the team entered into a silver-colored hallway filled with bright orange lights. One by one, they filed inside, coming to another door that opened. Ratchet felt uneasy however. _It's as if they knew we were coming._ He murmured in instruction to the others.

"Take out a powerful weapon, you'll need it." They had taken all the weapons that they had collected from the lombax laboratory with them, so everybody chose one unknown blaster.

Angela selected an assault rifle. It was silver with dark red stripes along the sides. Its magazine came down in an arc, and, to Ratchet, looked like a Nerf toy that kids played with. She read the name printed in Lombax: Enforcer. Just how enforcing it was, she didn't know yet.

Qwark selected a shotgun. It was worn and torn and had deep scratches, as if it had been used before. It was a tan color primarily, and had yellow tracings. It also had an energy charge counter, telling the user how many charges they had left before they had to reload. I had a twist, however, literally: Like any shotgun, it was pump-action. But the pump was on the side of the gun, not the bottom. It had a little grip at the end, so the user could cock the gun better.

Keanu didn't need a weapon; his trusty pistol and good aim was all he needed. Clank did not require a firearm, either, as he had shown throughout many of his and Ratchet's adventures.

Ratchet picked up an assault rifle, as well. It had a basic body, with rivets outlining the weapon. It, too, had lines tracing the weapon. The lines were glowing a deep blue; it reminded him of his own blood type. His only concern was the barrel of the gun. It was so outlandishly massive, he wondered what size charge it fired. _My God, it looks like it shoots _grenades_, not energy charges._ _Hm. Might be anti-infantry_. He looked at the others and said, "Well? Let's go!"

They burst into the room ahead of them, keeping an eye out for hostiles. The room was square, and it had wires running up and down the sides of the room. There were two control consoles in the room: One in a corner, the other in the center. This room, too, was lighted by a bright orange light system. Ratchet felt he could use the control consoles to their advantage. He turned to Clank and Keanu.

"You two. Think you can hack into those control consoles?"

"Of course, Ratchet. I think you've been around me for enough cycles to know that," said Clank. Keanu replied, "Yeah, probably. Don't know what to do if the thing overloads itself, though."

"Well, if you want to entertain us, just stay there and piss your pants. If you don't want that-"

"Which I don't."

"-then jump away. Should be easy."

"Okay. Keanu, you take stage left, and Clank, you get front and center."

The two hustled to obey his orders. Qwark looked at him. "You sure like to be in charge." Ratchet replied with a hint of defensiveness in his voice. "No, I just want to get it over and done with. The sooner we find the lombaxes and save them, the sooner me and Angela can settle down."

"Hey guys, I think I've found something!" There was no missing either the excitement or the horror in Keanu's voice, and the other four rushed to his post. They looked on the monitor. What they found was not pretty.

It was a male lombax; he had a tail. This would be totally fine had the lombax not been strapped to a table with metal cuffs. He looked to be muttering to himself. He was primarily black-colored, and the stripes on his ears and tail were red. His eyes were yellow, giving him a more sinister look than he would have had."Which detention ward is that?" demanded Clank of Keanu. "It's not a detention ward. It's a lab room. They're performing an experiment in ten minutes, according to the schedule on the database."

"How far are we from that place?"

"We can make it in...six minutes, minus resistance. Even then, these guns can kick ass, I'm sure."

"Let's get the hell down there!" yelled Ratchet, running for the door opposite them. He wrenched it open, and sprinted down the room, dodging charges from automated security systems. The rest were not far behind.

The next room contained a group of Ultor troops. Being programmed to exterminate all manner of opposition, they wasted no time in pinning the group down with fire. The five all dove for separate cover, returning fire. Ratchet was the first to fire his prototype weapon. He found it oddly satisfying to pull the trigger, get the kickback out of the rifle, and watch deadly red rays of energy hit the enemy forces as they fell to the ground, blood-spattered and lifeless. The others followed suit, and the results were stunning. The first thing they all noticed was that each weapon fired red energy charges, but in a different way. Qwark's shotgun shot little red balls of energy in a shotgun-like way, while Angela's assault rifle fired long, thick beams of energy at an amazing rate. Finally, no weapons fire returned the group's, and they ran through to the next room.

The room was pentagonal in shape, and a red-lit hallway connected it and another room. _Well, this must be the detention facility, _thought Ratchet to himself. He felt tempted to draw his SureShot, but mastered the impulse and kept it in his holster. "We're almost there. We need to hurry," said Angela. Everyone obliged and sprinted, yet again, towards the next door. While they were sprinting, Ratchet heard the soft _thunk_ that belonged to a Cragmite soldier's boots. He turned around, and found two Cragmites flanking them. Not wanting to keep the others waiting, he fired ten rounds from his X-20. The Cragmites exploded over him, covering him with purple Cragmite guts. His fur was drenched in blood, and he was spitting it out of his mouth. He ran past the others and threw open the next door.

"_Here_ we are."

The lombax they had seen on the security camera was there, and he was tilting his head to each side jerkily, eyes blank, and he was still softly and distantly muttering random strings of words that made no sense.

"Serial number 66O3I4...Tachyon's forces... Resistance ...Darkstar alive..."

Ratchet looked at him while struggling with his cuffs. "Hold on, bud, we're getting you out of here." The lombax seemed to recognize the voice, because he stopped muttering and jerking his head, and instead turned to look at the side of Ratchet's blood-drenched head.

"You're...you're...Darkstar," he said in an awed voice. Ratchet ripped the prisoner's left hand cuff off, then started working on the other. He turned to look at the lombax in the eyes, still fumbling with the cuff.

"Yep. I sure am."

"Oh, thank God. I thought you were dead," said the lombax as Ratchet freed his other hand. "Nope. Here as hell. Get your left leg, I've got your right."

"Yeah, sure."

Qwark broke up their conversation by asking, "Who are you, exactly?"

The lombax freed his leg, and turned to face Qwark.

"My name's Marcus. I don't know my last name. All I know is that we were pinned down, and then that Cragmite Warrior gave me a big-ass bruise on my head, and next thing I know, I'm here."

"So Tachyon _has _managed to wage war on you guys," interjected Angela.

"Yep, and it's been hell. He launched his first attack four cycles ago. Ever since then, our dimension's been a wasteland." He got up as he was talking. "But enough of that. Let's get out of here. I know where they keep the Dimensionator. First, let me find my gun." Marcus searched the room with his eyes until he found his weapon. He hurried over to it and loaded it, ready for action. Ratchet was in awe.

"You have an SS, too?"

"You mean a SureShot, right? Yep. Nasty weapon, but it works, and a very good companion by your side when you're pinned down," said Marcus.

"Be nice to know what it actually _does_, wouldn't it?" asked Clank.

"It'd be nice, braaack, it'd be nice," said Keanu's parrot, following with a whistle after he finished talking. Marcus looked at them wide-eyed, not believing his ears.

"You mean you fought your asses here without using the thing?" he asked them. When they nodded their agreement to this question, he scoffed in disbelief, at the same time rolling his eyes, turning his head, and taking a step back.

"Well, since we were smart enough to trip the alarm system, you'll probably find out soon enough." With this note, he ran out of the laboratory, followed by the others.

The Ultor forces they encountered were no match for the combined forces of the weapons they were using. "Quick change of armor, people! When we get to the elevator, make sure to pretend you're transferring me to a different cell!" yelled Marcus after they had destroyed all the Ultor forces. Keanu was the first to do so, and, without any stripping, put on the Ultor hazmat suit. The others followed his example, except Qwark. When he gave this problem to the others, Ratchet said, "Well, I guess we can say that you were caught and are now going to jail." When Qwark agreed (although very reluctantly), Ratchet did a fist pump in his mind. God_, I've been wanting to do this to the bastard for _years! _Finally, some payback!_

They followed Marcus to the elevator. Just when they reached the front of the entrance, another Ultor came up to them, hoping to get a ride on the elevator as well. Ratchet thought they were busted, then grabbed Marcus by the arm and ushered him onto the elevator. Marcus looked at him, though Ratchet didn't know why. Then he heard Marcus's voice inside his head.

_Ratchet, can you speak Cragnese?_

_ Hell, I hope so_, said Ratchet, knowing that lombaxes can communicate with their thoughts. Alister did it all the time. The Ultor looked at Ratchet and said in Cragnese, _There's no record of a prisoner __transfer here_.

_These orders came from the top_, replied Ratchet, the lift moving slowly.

_Oh,_ replied the Ultor. They continued in silence for a bit, then the Ultor must have decided to catch them at it, because he said, _What's the confirmation number?_

"Uhh...," replied Ratchet. Qwark took care of him by punching through the Ultor's helmet, who, in turn, fell down, unconscious. The elevator opened, and the group followed Marcus's lead.

The six didn't have to run very far to reach the location of the Dimensionator. It was in the center of the next room, heavily guarded. Ultors and Cragmites alike turned and fired. The heroes dove for cover, hoping to return fire. That never came, however; too much fire power came from the other side, pinning them down. They were forced to fire without exposing their heads, thus reaching a blind fire crisis. Every now and then, they would hear a yell on the other side, only to be replaced by another weapon firing.

"Everybody, try to move from cover to cover! We can flank them!" yelled Angela. The others attempted to oblige to her order. Qwark, however, chickened out, staying at his original cover. He did not even seem to be attempting to fight back, because he was wrapping his arms around his gun and whimpering. The others failed at their attempts. Too much enemy fire. Ratchet remembered what Clank had said just before Angela had

appeared in his doorway, covered in soot.

"Clank, depending on what it is, I'm ready for your little 'surprise' now!"

"Alright, Ratchet. You might want to duck a bit!"

"We don't really have any other option!"

Ratchet watched as Clank's hands transformed into cannons. His armor grew thicker and stronger as well. As he stood up, his cannons were glowing red and sucking energy faster every second. Then, without warning, everything from Clank's torso up started spinning faster and faster. His cannons fired, and brilliant red ribbons of energy flew everywhere. He held it for a while, then ceased fire and stopped spinning.

The door behind them burst open. Ultors and Cragmites once again hailed fire on the group. Ratchet then had a brilliant idea.

"Everybody, get over here!"

No sooner had he said this than all of his allies were by his side. He whispered his plan to them, and he said, "Alright, let's go!"

The rest of the group held hands while Ratchet crawled his way towards the table in the center of the room, keeping his body out of the range of the energy charges. When he finally got there, the enemy stopped firing, wondering what was going on: Nobody was firing back. Ratchet used this to his advantage. He sprang up and grabbed the Dimensionator.

The enemy started firing at Ratchet, who dodged their weapons fire with ease. Marcus finally got tired of Ratchet's pirouetting across the battlefield and yelled, "Ratchet, MOVE IT! NOW! We don't have much time!"

Ratchet heeded him. It happened in slow motion. Marcus threw out his hand to Ratchet, keeping a firm grip on Angela's, and so on down the line. Ratchet slammed the Dimensionator over his head. He put one hand on the lever, and stretched the other out to Marcus. He dove for Marcus's hand. As he flew through the air, he caught Marcus's hand, and said four fatal words as he pulled the Dimensionator's lever,

"Dimensionator, find the lombaxes!"


	6. Chapter 6- Clever Deception

Alrighty then, _this _is where it gets interesting. Two of the group decide to go back, and Ratchet and the others are left with four- or are they? Read, you idiot, I'm not going to tell you straight up!

**Chapter 6**

**Clever Deception**

It felt like hell.

Ratchet had already felt the effects of the Dimensionator, but that was nothing to the pain he felt now. He felt as though he was being electrocuted: His nervous system was about to explode. The hand holding Marcus's was tingling because of his strong grip. Ratchet tried to open his mouth and cry out in extreme pain, but he couldn't; it was as if he was paralyzed.

Then, just as suddenly, it stopped. Ratchet's vision was blurred. He couldn't tell up from down. He could see Clank talking, but couldn't hear him. He gave his head a shake and everything cleared up. As he did, he could see their surroundings: They were in a circular area, with almost no vegetation. The only signs of life they could see were patches of short, brown grass-like blades on the ground; the other sign was themselves. A hill rose in front of them, blocking their forward view. Through his horrible, yet discernible eyesight, Ratchet could see their stolen armor was lost in the Dimensionator.

"..chet. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine," said Ratchet, responding to his metallic buddy's voice. "That was some trick back there."

"Think nothing of it, Ratchet. It was as dangerous for me as it was for you. I downloaded it from Nefarious's mother ship, if you could call it that." Ratchet got to his feet, and saw the others had their backs to him, looking over the hill. _That's strange. _Ratchet turned to Clank, hoping he had the answer to his next question.

"What's gotten into them?" he asked. When Clank shook his head and shrugged his shoulders, Ratchet went over to investigate. "Sure hope it's a _good _sign," he muttered to himself. He beckoned Clank to follow him, and made his way over to the hill.

"Uhh... guys? What are you looking...Oh, shit."

The answer stood before him. The lombaxes' dimension looked like it had barely been built. They were overlooking a city, but it looked so unlike a city that Ratchet couldn't tell at first. Smoke curled up into the sky from the buildings. Skyscrapers looked like they had been ripped in two: Their jagged summits posed a threat to ships flying low over the ground. Even from the distance, he could see fires burning in the lower parts. Marcus said, "I was going to tell you how much damage they had done while you were away, but there was too much action."

"Yeah, don't worry. I think we'll have everything under control," said Ratchet.

"Uhh... would be a _bit _late to chicken out?"

Ratchet stared at Qwark, not believing what he had just heard.

"I thought you wanted to be recognized as a hero," he responded.

"Yeah, well, fuck that idea. I wanna go home."

"Fine. But make sure the Dimensionator stays here. Just will the thing to stay here and it will."

"Okay," said Qwark uncertainly. He shuffled over to the Dimensionator, and said, "Dimensionator, find home." He pulled the lever and was gone in a flash of white light. When all cleared, the Dimensionator was there, but Qwark was gone.

"Good. Now _we _can get out of here if we need to," said Ratchet.

"I wanna go, braaack, I wanna go," said Keanu's parrot. Keanu threw a heavy sigh.

"Scared little bastard, ain't ya? Well, I guess so. But you stay home. And if I find out otherwise, and believe me, I will, I swear to God I'm going to kill you."

"But Keanu, don't you want to go with him?"

"Didn't I say at the beginning of this charade that it sounded fun to me?" replied Keanu. Ratchet smiled.

"Okay. It's your bird."

Keanu repeated the same steps Qwark had, and the Dimensionator was still there. Ratchet walked over and picked it up. Keanu breathed a sigh of relief.

"God, you have no idea how relaxing it is to not have to keep throwing a look over your shoulder just to make sure he's still there."

"I'll take your word for it." Ratchet then referred to the Dimensionator. "Better keep this and find the lombaxes- once we find them." He stored it in Clank's chestplate (as he had a compartment built into it) and looked toward the other two.

"Guess we can't stay here very long. Let's go find the lombaxes. Marcus, you do know how to get there?"

"Yes, I do," he said, looking at Ratchet confusedly.

"Good. Then lead the way."

Marcus obliged, and slid down the hill, closely followed by Ratchet, Angela, and Clank. They immediately came up on a house, and took cover. Marcus drew his SureShot, then walked over to the house on the other side of the street, pointing his gun down the street as he went. The other three did the same as well, aiming their guns down the street as they went. It continued through the city for about another half hour before Marcus stopped, his ears pricking almost rhythmically, as if he were listening to footsteps. He held up his hand, and the others stopped.

"What is it?" asked Angela.

"I don't know. Something... feels off."

"As if...?"

"Well, the Imitators have made everybody paranoid-"

"You're joking, right?" interjected Ratchet.

Marcus looked at him as if Ratchet should have known this. He replied, with a puzzled look on his face, "No, I'm not."

Ratchet's ears fell down inside his helmet. He barely heard Marcus's next sentence,

"You should know that."

"Well, I do now, and that's not good."

"No it isn't," agreed Angela. Marcus looked at her in disbelief.

"_Not good? Not good?_ It's the reason we didn't get back up on our feet in the _first _place! Can you imagine it- peeking around every corner, hoping you don't see those merciless red eyes, praying for salvation? That's what most of us did, and look what a great load of shit it's done for us! Almost everybody else is dead!" He turned his back to the group with a bitter expression on his face. The rest of the group sat in silence. Clank was the first to respond to this outburst.

"My sensors tell me that you are keeping something from us," he said. "Would you like to tell us now?"

"No, no... later on. Right now, we have to focus on getting back to..."

But he was cut off, as a blur of something darted at him, pinning him down in the shadow the sunset cast upon the house. Angela leapt on Marcus's attacker, who was now strangling him, and threw him off. Marcus gasped for air, massaging his throat. The mysterious lombax, hidden behind a suit of Trillium armor, fought off Angela, and lunged once again for Marcus, yelling wildly. Ratchet threw his straight arm between Marcus and the man, so that when the arm and the man contacted each other, the man was hit on the head. His head comically bent back when it was introduced to Ratchet's arm, while his body went forward, making him skid across the ground for a few feet. The attacker, however, sprang himself back up again, and yelled at Marcus.

"TRAITOR! TRAITOR! Bringing unidentifieds into our territory! TRAITOR!"

"Settle down, David! These are allies!"

"How do you know? They could be Infils!"

"They're all organic, except the robot."

This seemed to calm the lombax named David, and he relaxed. He took off his helmet, presenting himself to the heroes.

David was, from what Ratchet could tell, a cross-breed between Cazar and lombax. His primary fur color was a deep, dark brown, and looked to Ratchet like someone had smothered molten chocolate all over his body. His stripes were jet black, giving him a sinister look. None of this mattered, though: He was an ally, no matter what.

"Guess you need a briefing. My name's David Banner. I'm part of the Resistance. You guys look awful familiar. You been around here?" asked David.

Ratchet replied, "Actually, no, we haven't. We got here about two minutes ago, and this place looks like a wasteland."

"That's because it is." David chuckled a bit before he said that. "Most of the places around here ain't worth a shit no more. But enough about our tragic little past. Who are you guys?"

"My name is Clank. This is Angela Cross and Ratchet Darkstar, who are engaged. This, as you very well know, is Marcus Brown." Marcus and David stared at Ratchet in amazement. Ratchet returned the look uncertainly.

"What? Did I blow my helmet?"

"You're...you're... Darkstar's kid?"

"You mean Kaden Darkstar? Yeah, I am. Does it make a difference?"

"Oh, my God."

Both the other two lombaxes looked at each other in awe. Ratchet considered this an odd act, and asked, "Why did you do that?"

"You're-"

A sudden roar of anger sliced through the ruins. Marcus and David looked in fear. Marcus turned to Ratchet and said, "We'll tell you when we're back at camp. I have a question too, but let's get the hell out of here before those things come and tear us to pieces."

"Alright, I'm with you," said Angela. _I'm sure as _hell _not _, though Ratchet to himself. _I'd be extremely happy to know what we're running from. Maybe we wouldn't be running if I knew._ But before he could ask what it was they were taking shelter from, Marcus and David started sprinting ahead of the group. Ratchet followed them, hoping they would answer his questions if they would answer his.

_You know, there's a reason we're not telling you, Ratchet,_ came David's voice in Ratchet's head. _All in good time._ Ratchet rolled his eyes and kept running. After about ten minutes, it was not Ratchet, but Angela who asked the question.

"What are we running from?"

"We'll explain later," said Marcus. "Right now we need to focus on getting back to base."

"Hold up, Little Man," said David. "Someone's coming."

He held up his hand for silence. As he did, the group stopped, listening intently on what he could hear. They heard it: footsteps. And they didn't sound robotic. Marcus turned to David with an uncertain look on his face.

"Friendlies?"

David raised his eyebrows while shrugging. "Could be anything."

Ratchet jumped in. "Well, let's find out." No sooner had he finished his sentence than a figure appeared behind them, feet pounding the ground. They spun around, and they saw it.

The thing was a lombax. It was average in height, but other then that, you really couldn't tell anything else, because it was cloaked. The lombax drew his hand to his head, and flipped his hood back. Everybody reacted in different ways. Marcus and David took a step back. Clank gasped. Keanu's jaw dropped. Angela fell over unconscious; she had fainted again. Ratchet just merely looked at him in awe.

It was Kaden. He was there; beaten, but alive, he was silent. His emerald eyes glazed over each member of the group. Marcus came up beside Kaden and saluted him. Without waiting for a response, he said, "Sir, we're stuck in a deep mound of shit and we don't have the shoes for it. Can you help us out?"

Kaden turned his head slowly to look at Marcus. When he stopped to look at him, his head jolted to a stop. Suddenly, Kaden's eyes started glowing red. His emerald eyes melted away, now replaced by evil, red eyes. Kaden threw his arm into Marcus's body, and the lombax flew backwards into a wall, unconscious.

Ratchet looked at Kaden and yelled, "Enemy! Get to cover!" while running behind a house, firing at the robot. Kaden merely drew his weapon, an Apocalypse, and fired. Ratchet knew what had happened: This Kaden was an Imitator.

Without the slightest tinge of regret, Ratchet commanded his chaingun modification to deploy, and fired blindly around the corner. He heard the ricochets of his charges hitting the Imitator's body, then merely flying off in random directions. David launched into acrobatic spy techniques as he drew nearer and nearer to the Imitator. When he got there, he threw a punch against the Imitator's head. The Imitator, taken by surprise, fell down, and Ratchet took his chance. "Get clear!" he yelled.

There was a sharp _crack _that was all too familiar to Ratchet. He turned around and saw a smoking sniper rifle barrel in Keanu's hand. Behind him, the one-eyed Imitator fell down. Keanu looked around, apparently embarrassed.

"What? It was creepin' me out!"

"Well, that's another creeper gone," said Ratchet. The others looked at him. It took him a while to figure out this odd behavior, then said, "Oh, not Marcus. I was talking about Qwark." He then directed his attention to Marcus, who was bleeding from his head. He attempted to pick him up, failed, then turned to David. "Can you help me out here?"

David removed a capsule from his armor and threw it on the ground next to Marcus. Turning to Ratchet, he said, "You might want to stand back a little bit." Ratchet did as he was told, and as he watched, the capsule contained a stretcher of sorts that squeezed itself under Marcus. It then proceeded to levitate, and David held his hand out in front of him. Marcus and the stretcher moved forward, and David led the others to their destination.

"Where are we going?" asked Angela. "The underground. It's too dangerous to be out here," David replied, without turning to look at her. "On top of the Imitators, Tachyon, little beer-goggled freak he is, managed to control the Jolves." When nobody replied back, he stopped and looked at the rest. "I'm guessing you guys don't know what Jolves are, then?"

"Actually, yeah, I do," said Ratchet. "I hate them. I encountered them while I was with Alister once, and I don't want it to happen again."

"Well, then, let's get a move on. We can't be out here for too long."

"But that roar back there, when you guys were about to tell me who I was? That wasn't a Jolf. So what the hell was it?"  
"Once again, all in good time. Now can we haul our asses out of the open, please?"

They heeded him, and continued on in silence for five minutes. They came to a spot in a destroyed street. The section of street was in between two bombed buildings. There was a lot of vegetation in this area, though, and Ratchet wondered why. David came to a stop in front of a large part of vegetation. Clank turned to him.

"I assume that this is our destination?"

"Yep, and it's a damn good one too. I've never heard a Jolf or a Crag in there yet. Let's get out of the open and into shelter."

They followed him in. There was an immediate drop, and they all fell down. After getting up and brushing themselves off, they went deeper into the area.

It was a subway. But it was completely trashed. The levitrams on either side were on their sides and missing parts of their cars. The supports were cracked, and Ratchet thought it could cave in at any moment. As he took in the destruction caused by Tachyon's forces, David was already at the stairs. He cleared his throat, and they followed.

They kept going, listening to the echoing drops of water. David led them through a narrow passageway. _We must be getting close, _thought Ratchet. David kept walking, then stopped abruptly. He turned to the group.

"Ratchet, it'd be better if you went first."  
"You scared?"

"Ha ha, you wish. No, they need to see a proof of organicism when you arrive."

Ratchet came up through the passageway and saw tents. He gasped. There were lombaxes. Beaten, but alive, they walked around, talking to each other or starting fires in old Raritanium cans. Ratchet felt a tap on his shoulder, and he turned around.

There were four lombaxes, one leading the group. One was blue with green stripes, muscular, and tall. Another was purple and orange and had a little less muscle, and the third, red and yellow and . The one in front was black and brown, and his left hand was in front of his hip. And in that hand, he held an energy knife.


	7. Chapter 7- The Redeemer

**Chapter 7**

**The Redeemer**

_What the fuck is he thinking?_

Ratchet looked at the knife in disbelief. Why would a lombax, one of him, even think of attempting to kill him? The lombax flipped his knife around so that it was now the handle facing Ratchet and held it up to him with a straight arm. Ratchet next heard him say it, but he didn't believe he would say it-

"Cut yourself."

Ratchet paused for a brief moment, then took the knife. He did not cut himself, though. The lombax decided to make his point clear, because he repeated his order, this time more menacingly.

"I _said_, cut yourself."

Ratchet looked at him for a while. Then he raised his knife up to his wrist. The armor on his hand folded away (because he commanded it to), and quickly and shallowly cut his wrist, flinching for a brief second. He then showed the cut side to the other lombax, where Ratchet's blue blood was slowly trickling down his wrist. Ratchet had the sudden urge to flip the lombax off, but decided against it. It was better to make friends with his race. He commanded his armor to fold up and lowered his hand. Looking at the lombax with defiance, he said, "What _now?_"

"Heard stories of Imitators that actually looked like lombaxes. Guess you ain't one of 'em. But that still doesn't explain what we're doing down _here_..." he finished, eyeballing Ratchet's group.

"We were just following David down here. He said that it was better to stay down here than out there, so we decided to play along."

The other laughed harshly. "You're coming down here just because you're scared of above-ground." He scoffed, then continued to talk. "_That_'s a likely story. Now tell me-" He slid the cocking mechanism on his assault rifle, then lifted it at Ratchet's chest, "-what are you _really _up to?"

David stepped in between Ratchet and the other lombax and carried out Ratchet's testimony. "What we've told you is true. We heard Jolves out there, and they pick up on scents fast. Plus, we have a man down," he said, indicating Marcus. The lombax looked at Marcus's limp body, then lowered the gun.

"Guess you _are_ screwed. Well, we'll help you for as long as you need. When you go, we'll give you food and water, plus whatever medical supplies we can muster. But," he added in a warning tone, looking at Ratchet, "we've lived here peacefully for years without Tachyon's forces disturbing us at all. If you've brought them to our doorstep, I'll kill you with my own two hands." Then he offered one to Ratchet. There was a moment of silence, then David's voice cut through Ratchet's brain.

_He's waiting for you_. Ratchet looked at the lombax and shook his hand. "Understood. Thank you," was all he said. The lombax nodded. "One more thing. Who are you guys? I ain't seen you around here before."

Ratchet took the liberty of introducing his group. "This is Angela, Clank, and David," he said, indicating each one as he spoke. "The sleeping beauty is Marcus. We rescued him from one of Tachyon's labs. I'm Ratchet." The other lombaxes perked up when they heard this, their eyes sharing looks of amazement. The leader merely looked at Ratchet. When he spoke, he stuttered.

"Ra...Ratchet...D...Darkstar?"

"Yes. Why?"

The leader did not reply immediately. But he eased the words out.

"You're...you're...the Redeemer."

_What the hell does _that _mean_? thought Ratchet. But his question was not answered. Instead he was ushered into a tent and sat down by David. The leader and the others with him followed, but David signaled the others to leave. When they had cleared out of the tent, David said to the leader, "Pull up a chair. We have a lot to talk about."


	8. Chapter 8- Questions and Answers

Guess I shoulda clarified myself on the first chapter. Woulda, coulda, shoulda. Anyway, two cycles make up one Earth year (leap and standard).

**Chapter 8**

**Questions and Answers**

Ratchet folded his helmet back off his face and looked at both of the other lombaxes, his head, and most likely his face, filled with confusion. What did all this mean? Why did the other lombaxes suddenly have a change in attitude towards him? Why did David lie that they had heard a Jolf? What the hell was going on here? David zipped up the tent and put a sound dampener covering along the inside using another capsule. Then he turned to Ratchet.

"Answer our questions, and we'll answer yours," he said. "Don't be shy, the walls are sound-proof."

"But I don't know anything," he protested. David raised his eyebrow and smirked cockily.

"What's my name?"

"You know what I mean."

"Now on a more serious note..." he said, " What did you do to make Tachyon come here?"

"It isn't what _I _did!" said Ratchet defensively. "He came here and attacked you! I thought I had killed him! I-"

"Wait a minute." The other lombax looked at him. "You _killed _Tachyon?"

"Obviously not, but I _thought _I did," replied Ratchet.

"That doesn't matter. What matters is that you were skilled enough to beat him in combat. Something the lombaxes didn't have. The best squad in the whole damn _Guard _didn't have the skill to overpower him." He pointed at Ratchet. "Since _your _house was attacked by Tachyon, since _your _parents died for you, since _you _avenged their deaths, _you _are his number one on his list of deadliest things in the dimensions. Actually, he _made _you his number one by killing your parents."

"Moving on," said David. "How did you do it?"

"Not hard, really. Just hit that throne of his a few times and baby went boom."

"It's not that easy for the rest of us. _You _are the chosen one, the beacon of light to the others, the sole survivor at Tachyon's hand. _We_, on the other hand, would have to train for cycles in order to do that." David looked at the other lombax, of whom Ratchet decided to ask his name after this little interrogation, and asked another question.

"Ratchet, there's something else. How did you survive on your own for twenty-eight cycles? Ever since you were one year old, you survived. But how?"

Ratchet thought about this, looking wide-eyed at supposedly his eyebrows, thinking hard. Finally, he had to admit it. "I honestly don't know much," he said. "I guess it was the will of the universe that kept me alive. The universe kept my life source inside of me. I never felt hunger. I never felt thirst. I never felt pain. I really didn't walk around until I was two and a half cycles.

"I started to live on the streets of Kerwan when I was ten cycles. I taught myself how to pickpocket from people. I taught myself how to pick locks and hack into computers. I even constructed my own X-20 when I was twenty cycles old." He drew his weapon and held it up, so the other two could see it. "Things were looking up.

"Then, one day, a guy caught me trying to pickpocket him. Luckily, he was friendly, sort of a forgive-forget person. He took me in until I was twenty-eight cycles. Then he gave me some bolts and told me to go out and make a living.

"Two cycles later, I was at my place, working on my ship when I saw Clank crash-land near my working space. That's how all this happened, all our adventures." He finished telling his story and looked up at the other lombaxes, who were staring at Ratchet in awe. He decided to play a little joke.

"So, do I have something on my face, or did you guys find today's history lesson more invigorating than the last?"

"Neither," replied David. "It was the teacher. You're the only one who can bring the lombaxes out of this. You've defeated Tachyon once; you can do it again."

"And one more thing," interjected the unknown. "Your arm is silver. How did it get to be like that?"

"Yeah, that's something I wanted to know too. You didn't use the injection, did you?"

Ratchet smiled sheepishly and rubbed his back. "Yeah. Why?"

David nodded his approval. "Well, I'm glad the right person got to it. I'll answer your questions now." He signaled to the other lombax, and the latter got up. The unknown turned to Ratchet. "Anytime you need me, just give me a holler. Name's Warren. Good luck."

He exited the tent, and Ratchet had to control himself in order to ask just one question at a time. He started with the one he thought was most important.

"How long ago did he hit you guys?"

"Six cycles, I think," replied David. "Can't really tell time anymore. Central power's been shorted out as long as hell's been round. Have to resort to our shadows, though we can't really tell anything down here."

"How could he possibly do all this shit in six cycles?"

"He doesn't have _just _Cragmites, Imitators, and Jolves at his disposal. He attacked with everything he had. I was there when he first attacked. My squadmate, Alec, died right next to me. He got hit by shrapnel from an anti-infantry. I remember him just lying there, and I was holding his hand, and I felt it slack..." He turned away, bitter tears in his eyes.

"So _that's_ why you had that outburst, because Alec died?"

"Yes."

"He died for you, David. He wouldn't want you to stand here. He'd want you to avenge him."

David mused, his muzzle lightly dampened from his tears. "I know. But not now. You have more questions."

"Yes, I do," said Ratchet. "When we were back there, and you stepped in between me and Warren, you said we heard a Jolf. That wasn't a Jolf. What was it?"

David sighed. "That's too complicated right now. Right now, all we need to know is that Tachyon is attacking us, and we need to fight back."

_Okay. Awkward in the way he said it, but okay._ "Is there any central power source you guys use?"

"Only Tachyon's," came the reply. "But you don't need power sources when you have weapons."

"I only have a few more questions," said Ratchet, deciding to shorten the conversation.

"Go ahead," said David.

"Are either of my parents still alive?"

David hesitated before answering the younger's question. "Well, uh... I've heard some stories about their ghosts. Don't know how much is true, though. I've heard that they don't have their hereditary fur colors. Honestly, from the way it sounds, I think somebody might be using transmission images to create a hoax. You do know what a lombax transmission looks like, right?" he added uncertainly.

"Yeah, I do. We saw Alpha Forty-Nine's transmission. The one about the Imitators. The one he made just before he died."

David sighed heavily. "One of the turning points in the war. Had he survived, I think we would have won a lot faster. But no, unfortunately, he didn't survive, and I don't think your parents survived, either. I'm sorry.

"And I have another thing to tell you. That weapon you've implanted in your arm?"

"Yeah?" said Ratchet, uncertainly.

"One of the side effects is growth and evolution. It'll get to be more helpful, but it'll start to consume your body. Not like eat you or make you insane, but spread throughout, starting from the injection and going to other parts. Eventually, the silver paint job will fall off, if you will, of your fur, and you'll be yellow and brown again. But when you transform, you'll turn into a replica of an Imitator. Don't worry," he added when Ratchet's face showed horror, "you'll be sane and will be able to communicate with others. But the Imitators will know you're a fake.

"You see, Imitators have thermal imaging sensors. It basically shows organics in a firefight. Anyway, they'll see right through your disguise. So I wouldn't go near them and try to play two egos."

"Okay," said Ratchet. "I only have one more question."

"Fire away, kid."  
"I found the injection in a lab under my living room. It had an automatic sealing floor, where all the pieces of wood flew back and made it look like nothing had happened. There was a long tunnel we crawled through to get there. What was that used for?"  
David looked as if he was in an internal struggle. Finally, he spoke. "Well, it was a lab, as you know. It was used in the Great War. It housed prototypes and the scientists who worked on the prototypes. I think you mother might have been one. Anyway, there was something like an enchantment. Whenever you entered the tunnel, time wouldn't pass as slowly as it would have had there not been an enchantment. When they had been working on a huge project, for example, it would take them maybe two cycles in there, but a month out here. The Dimensionator was built down there. Luckily, it was finished before worse things happened."

Ratchet's muzzle expression gave his curiosity away. "My mother worked in there?"

"I think so," replied David. "I ran sometimes ran into her at the Lombax Praetorian Academy. When I asked her what branch she had her mind set on, she said that it was classified. I kind of got that hint. But I don't know," he added hastily, as Ratchet was showing excitement of his parents' resistance to the Cragmites. "She could have been in another part."

"And all that led to _this_?"

"Yeah." He glanced at his holo-watch, then took a Laser-Cigarette (L-Cig for future reference) and lit up. Ratchet pounced on David's possession of a watch.

"I thought you said all power was cut and that you were only able to use your shadow?"

David smirked at the younger's quick reaction time and sharp eye. He puffed, then answered. "Fair enough. I did say that. But luckily, Coba was able to start building these. They work on free energy, so they just need the will of the universe to survive, like you." He took another puff, and Warren flew into the tent. When he lifted the tent flap, they could hear a faint siren somewhere off in the distance. Warren immediately turned to David and said, "We're not sure, but there are, supposedly, Cragmite forces out there. I'll need you and the younger to investigate." David looked at Ratchet and nodded his head once, and Ratchet followed him out of the tent.

Once they were outside the tent, Warren wasted no time in making a scene confronting the two, tone menacing and eyes wild. "You've done it! You brought Cragmites to our fucking doorstep! I swear to God I should live up to my promise and kill you, but I'll let _Tachyon _do it _for _me! RIGGS!" he yelled out, and a lombax came out from the crowd that had formed around the three. He was mainly a sweet ginger color, and he had red stripes like Alister's. Ratchet was amazed by the resemblance of the two, but Warren's yelling brought him back. "Take this waste of space and make sure our security system still works!"

The lombax named Riggs nodded, then took off, David and Ratchet nipping at his heels. As they ran, Riggs spoke. He had a heavy African-American accent, from what Ratchet could tell.

"Man, you really managed to piss Warren off."

"Well, it's like he said. It's our fault," said Ratchet. "He said you've been down here for years without trouble. We're sorry..."

"Don't worry. It happens every half-cycle. Tachyon finds us," said Riggs. "We pack up and get the hell out. Don't listen to Warren. He just likes a scapegoat...real name's Ryan, by the way. Ryan Wrigley. Don't tell me, I already know." He pointed at Ratchet. "The Redeemer," he said. Then he pointed at David. "And you must be Banner."

"Yep, that's me," he replied.

"Well, let's see if our system malfunctioned, or we actually get a rare fight down here." Without another word, they kept on running, back through the path they had already taken, through familiar territory, all the way back to the entrance. The place was dark except for some faint lights that glimmered almost happily, shining some light into the darkness. Ratchet peered through the black. He saw faint, gleaming silver and merciless red eyes. There was no mistaking it.

"Tachyon!"

**Sorry it took so long to upload. We've got a paper roller coaster project we're working on for the spring fest, so that's been a pain in the padded ass. But here we go! What will happen to the three? Hopefully they won't go back to the camp in Raritanium cans...**


	9. Chapter 9- Battle of Darkness Part 1

**Chapter 9**

**Battle of Darkness**

There was no mistaking those four pairs of piercing, unremorseful, red eyes. Tachyon's forces had arrived. Imitators and actual Cragmites had arrived, and those were the only forces Ratchet could see. He knew there were more foot soldiers, but he didn't want to take a head count in the heat of battle. He felt the other two fly past him, comically knocking him from one side to the other. There was no time to think about that, however, and he quickly started running to catch up with David and Ryan. What happened next was unpredictable.

As Ryan and David were running forward, the Imitators opened fire. This forced Ryan and David to run off in opposite directions in their search for cover, leaving Ratchet exposed. He quickly took cover of his own: a support beam. It was thick and it put some protection between Ratchet and his enemies, but it wasn't wide enough to keep him completely covered. He found that out when an energy charge hit his right arm. He ran off to the right, holding his arm which was now covering whatever it touched in blood. He stopped for a moment, still exposed. He heard David's voice yell at him.

"Goddamn it, Darkstar! What the hell are you doing? Get to cover!"

Ratchet tried to move, but the next thing he knew, he was behind some thick-walled Raritanium cans and had David's hand on his right arm. He yelled in pain. David took the hint, and reached for another capsule. It contained silver liquid in one half and a deep bluish-purple in the other. David crushed it in his hand and let the two substances mix. Two seconds later, the capsule had turned into a turret you probably would have seen on a military jeep. David rose up, put his finger on the trigger, and fired.

Soon, his powers were no longer matched, his fire no longer retaliated against. They looked up from cover and saw bullet-riddled Imitators, their silver metal showing they had no disguise. This explained why Ratchet saw the light gleaming off of silver: these things. There was no celebration, though, as wails split the air. Jolves. David nodded at Ryan, and Ryan ran up to a maintenance shaft attached to the supports. Ratchet could see little boxes with lights gleaming on them. Explosives. David called up to Ryan.

"How's it look?"

"Not good. There's one here that won't go off."

"So just blow the others!" yelled Ratchet. "We've got company already!" He was right: For some reason, lighting had come back on, and they could now see the first wave of Jolves, their red eyes hungry and their mouths dripping poison. Ratchet started firing and waited for Ryan's answer. He did not have to wait long.

"I can't! If one won't blow, they all won't blow."

_Shit_, thought Ratchet. Then he yelled aloud, "Can you fix it?"

"Yeah, but it'll take some time!"

"Not a lot, though! They're on our asses!"

The first Jolf, likely the leader, jumped over the Raritanium cans and turned around, looking at Ratchet and David. David pulled out his sidearm, and HVS45, and fired. The Jolf's head exploded in a flash of both poison and purple blood as the body collapsed to the ground. David once again took control of his turret and cut down the Jolves still alive. He quickly took down six of them. That left three of them. Ratchet's grenade took care of one. One of the survivors was surprisingly agile, and swiftly pinned down Ratchet, his weapon useless. The other was locked in a hand-to-jaw combat situation with David. Ratchet looked over and saw David skillfully placing his fingers on the only parts of the jaw that did not contain teeth. Ratchet wasn't so lucky, and his own Jolf started to tear into his side. Ratchet yelled in pain. It was an excruciating experience. Luckily, the Jolf hadn't ripped off any of Ratchet's flesh. This gave him more energy, and he promply threw off the Jolf. Ignoring his torn, bloody side, he attacked the Jolf. David, however, had finished his fight by a quick snap of the neck. Not wanting the Jolf to ruin his dinner, he fired at the tussling duo.

Both combatants dropped to the ground, motionless.

**Guess I wrote myself into a corner there. I can't really keep the whole suspense thing without cliffhangers. Might surprise you, but I'm still wondering, like you, what's going to happen to Ratchet. Think we all know what happens. Reference Chapter 8. He's the only one that can save the lombaxes, and, frankly, the story can't really go on without him. **


	10. Chapter 10- The Other Coba

**Chapter 10**

**The Other Coba**

_ Damn! What shit is this? Man, this is either an impossible puzzle, or something bigger. OK, let's recap to the point of attack. The Jolf attacked _me _first. _I _was number one on its kill list. Probably because I'm the Redeemer or whatever the hell it is. No, no, no! Wrong! You've experienced assaults like this before. Tachyon, Nefarious, Hardlight, Angela. There's more going on here, a bigger plot to destroy the lombaxes. What _is _it? What clues solve the puzzle? I can't do the equation without all the variables. Time is running out. Course Alister would have said time is up, but he has no real grasp of anything except bringing the lombaxes back. Well, next time I see him, I can tell him in your _FACE!

Ratchet woke suddenly. He found himself lying in a second-rate, make-do hospital bed. Obviously it would be second-rate, what with M.A.L.D. and all. (**Note: Mutually Assured Lombax Destruction**). There were sickbeds in the room, twenty in all, ten lining each side. The walls and floor were all metallic, but the ceiling projected sunlight. Ratchet guessed it mirrored whatever the weather was outside. Other than that, all natural light came from a solitary window, the electric lights now just for decoration, it seemed. One door was implanted in the wall opposite him. He could see the lines on the door's borders, but had they not been there, he would not have seen it. There was a fair amount of dust, and Ratchet surmised that Ryan or David had stationed him there as a last resort. After all, most of the tall buildings were just shrapnel and smoke, and Ratchet guessed he was in one of the large buildings. Why would anybody want to put an injured lombax in a safety hazard? Looking down, he saw that his left arm had an IV hooked up to it, blue blood in the IV bag, running through the tube to his arm.

Ratchet put his right hand on his head, and immediately withdrew it. Fur on metal was never a good sensation for Ratchet. _Wait. Metal?_ He looked at his arm. There was a silver, metal gauntlet-like thing on Ratchet's forearm, and from just above his elbow up, the pattern continued. But what grabbed the most of Ratchet's attention was his new elbow joint. The outside part of the circle was metallic, but pure, light blue energy was planted in the center. The energy was contained by an invisible dome, it seemed. He decided to ask Ryan what it was next time he saw him.

The sound of the door interrupted Ratchet's thoughts. With a _psssshhh_ of released air from pneumatic cylinders, Ryan and David walked in the room. David was walking in backwards with his gun pointed outside the door. Ryan, however, walked up to Ratchet's sickbed and immediately started changing a bunch of things. Ratchet, impulsively, protested.

"Hey! What the hell are doing?"

"Getting you out of this thing," said Ryan, breathing heavily. He continued, "We've got company. Apparently, the Jolf that tore you apart had a tracking device planted in its teeth. When it bit you- well, you know what happened.

"By the looks of it, Tachyon wants you dead pretty bad. He's sent out more than we can handle. He threw summoners at us, along with some assassins. Plus, there's something else that we don't know of. Never encountered it before." He stood up and grabbed the IV cord. "This might hurt a little." With that, he yanked the IV out of Ratchet's arm. Ratchet flinched, but no scream escaped him. He looked down at his left arm, expecting to see blood, but instead, the wound was healing, apparently on its own terms. It glowed faint blue as it worked.

"Oh, you've seen Coba's new marvel in action." Ryan was with Ratchet now, looking at his "patient's" new arm. "That's called the Harmonizer, and it doesn't mean peace…_or _corny music. Basically, it detects your injuries earned from battle or getting a paper cut. When it picks up injury on the wearer, it heals them automatically. In this case, it's you who's wearing it, and after hearing what happened with the Jolves, Coba decided you should have it." Ratchet closed his hand and opened it. The Harmonizer matched his hand, move by move. He stood up, looked at Ryan, and asked, "So if this is basically a high-tech, portable medpack, why isn't it stand-ish?" Ryan closed his eyes, then opened them, and said, "You see this energy?" He pointed at the sphere of energy. Ratchet, uncertainly, said, "Yeah?" Ryan continued-

"That, kid, is Abranium. Abranium is an absorbing type of energy, hence 'Ab-ranium.' This is all your father managed to pass on to Coba before he died."

"This Coba guy knew my father personally?"

"Not 'personally.' 'A best friend' would be a better description."

"Like Alister?"

Ryan bit his lip for half a second. "Don't talk about him in front of me, OK?" His voice was harsher than expected. Ratchet was taken back. "Are you alright?" he asked, wondering what Alister could possibly have that related to Ryan. Ryan sighed, then said, "Let's go get in the fight."

David had to flatten himself against the wall in order to not get crushed by the other two lombaxes. Immediately, they found a room, apparently a waiting area, completely engaged in combat. Lombaxes fought all different kinds of Cragmites. Blast marks splattered the walls. Different objects were used for cover by both factions while returning fire. As they ran, looking for allies to help, Ratchet asked-

"Oh, one more thing."

"Yeah?"

"My chaingun?"

"Sorry, kid. The Harmonizer recognized it as a foreign body and erased it from your arm."

"Finally."

"Oh, you're happy about that, are ya?"

There was no reply from Ratchet. It's hard to talk when you've been engaged in combat. But proposal had nothing to do with it. Ratchet fought as Ryan kept running. The Cragmite Ratchet was now fighting, though, was like nothing he had ever seen before.

In front of him was a Cragmite that must have been trained to shapeshift. It looked like a ninja, wrapped in black cloth and with glowing red eyes like that of an Imitator, but with yellow pupils. (**Note: Think Alister's eyes, except both a color glow and a color reverse.**) It carried a blaster pistol that shot a standard size energy charge, and was seemingly fearless. Ratchet tried to bring out his SureShot, but the Cragmite swatted it away before he even exposed the barrel.

_Nowhere to go from here except hand-to-hand. _Even here, the Cragmite exceled Ratchet in many ways. Everywhere he saw an opening and tried to strike, there was a hand to bat away Ratchet's attack. _Alrighty then_, thought Ratchet. _Defense Form Seven, waiting for attack._ Just like a mind-reader, the Cragmite threw a left hook at Ratchet's head. Ratchet threw out his right arm, and followed it up with a left side strike. The Cragmite, who, apparently, knew nothing about lombax defense arts of this kind, buckled when Ratchet's straight fingers hit its side. Ratchet seized his advantage and grabbed the exposed back of the Cragmite's head, brought it down into his elevating knee, then grabbed it by both hands and threw it effortlessly across the room, where it met the wall of the room.

Ratchet knew that it was dead, because it no longer saw its eyes. He looked around the room and saw Warren in trouble. Trouble, in this case, is defined as having a broken weapon-firing arm and being surrounded by merciless cyborgs that will stop at nothing to kill you. Ratchet quickly dived for his blaster, spun around, and fired. The result was a clean shot through all of the Cragmites' sides, then a comical reaction as all the Cragmite corpses appeared to be flying after the bullet that tore through them like paper. This left few Cragmites the lombaxes had to deal with. Just as the last Cragmite was having its head bashed in, everyone in the vicinity heard extremely loud music coming from outside, along with the sound of helicopter blades.

_Guess who's back_

_Back again_

_Shady's back_

_Tell a friend_

"Yep. That's him."

Ratchet heard the voice of a female lombax, but it wasn't Angela. It was someone completely different. She was average in height, but it was her fur color that threw Ratchet off completely. She was mainly dark blue with yellow stripes. She had both a kind eye and face, both features diminished by the happenings of war. She had a red plus sign on the left shoulder of her armor; she was obviously a combat medic. Their eyes met, and Ratchet almost lost his grip on reality. He quickly looked away and found Warren, who was clutching his side.

"You all right?" he asked.

Warren winced. "Yeah, ll'be alright. They're a hell of a lot more aggressive these days, and I think they might have been evolved by Tachyon. I'll get Alice-" Here, he indicated the blue and yellow lombax- "to help me out." He then turned his ear and listened to the ever-growing music coming from, apparently, a helicopter.

_Well, this looks like a job for me_

_So everybody just follow me_

_Cause we need a little controversy_

_Cause it feels so empty without me_

_Yeah, but it feels empty in a _good _way_, thought Ratchet to himself. He looked to the lombax named Alice. "You're a combat medic, then?"

Alice must have blushed, but it was hard to tell. "Yeah, I am. You're the Redeemer, right?"

"Yes, I am," replied Ratchet. Alice sighed, and Ratchet found out why with her next words. "Must be nice having no rules to follow."

Ratchet opened his mouth, then closed it. For a brief moment, he felt a little spark of rage. So she would _love _to be in his shoes, then? At least _she _knew her parents well. She knew how it felt to be loved. She could say that as she was right at that moment, but if she was Ratchet, she would be begging to swap places. He snapped his attention back to their conversation.

"Sort of. That's probably the only perk. That, and blowing shit up. That's basically the job description."

Ratchet paid attention to Alice only enough to hear her laugh before hearing Warren's gruff voice, contacting…Coba?

That couldn't be right. Alice was right next to him. Why would he be using a long-range transmitter to contact her? He felt like Warren was, metaphorically, flying a spaceship to Rykan V in order to give a face-to-face "Hello" to some random dude walking down the street. Remembering that he wanted to pay attention to Warren's conversation, he pushed the argument out of his head and listened to Warren's dialogue.

"-and I've told you _already_, Coba, that we need air support now! We've got the goddamn _Redeemer_ in here, and you're leaving him to the Cragmites!"

_"And _I've_ told _you_ already, I can't. I can work make-do guns in half an hour, but not a chopper."_

"Well, then," Warren nearly yelled at the transmitter, "I guess you can just suck my-"

_"What I_ can _do, however, is teleport a ULT outside the building. Just let me get the schematics of the hospital up and I can aim its teleportation precisely." _A few clacks of a keyboard were heard, and then the mystery Coba's voice came back again.

_"There's your tank, gents. Use it well."_

"Thanks."

Warren turned off the transmitter. Ratchet, sensing this, asked Warren, "Who the hell were you talking to? Coba-" he indicated Alice while he talked, "-is right here."

"Well, yes and no. Yes, Coba's there. No, Zain Coba isn't there. The differences are the gender and the occupation. Zain's the genius, Alice is the medic. She healed your father many times." Alice gave a breathy chuckle. "More times than I care to count," she said. "I hope you haven't inherited-"

That's all she could say before a loud explosion that rocked the room cut her off.

**Holy shit, guys. How long has it been since I last updated this thing? I had to get a hard drive restoration on my computer and finish a big-ass school project, so ther hasn't been a lot of time. Anyhoo, hope you enjoyed it.**


	11. Chapter 11-New Enemies, New Allies

**Chapter 11**

**New Enemies, New Allies**

Ratchet's ears rang. His vision was blurred. He could hear muffled shouting and make out lombaxes running around. There was the beat of a bass drum and the sound of a helicopter in the background. He could barely see flame in little bonfires, blazing from the helicopter's missile. This was a dream, this had to be a nightmare…

Then everything cleared up. He heard the sharp _chop-chop_ of the helicopter's blades and the pounding of the music. He looked through the hole in the wall and saw that the helicopter was touching down. Now he saw that they were on the ground floor, which did not bode well: When metal lombax Terminators and bugs in suits are coming at you, high ground is key. Someone jerked his thoughts away by dragging him into an elevator, and very harshly at that. Ratchet saw the elevator doors close in front of him. When he felt it safe enough, he stood up and looked around.

The elevator was full of lombaxes and nothing else. Warren was directly behind him, along with Marcus and Ryan and a couple of other unidentified lombaxes. Alice was on his right side. As he took in more detail, he saw that the elevator was climbing to the middle of the building. Remembering the whole full-scale-attack thing, he turned to his left, and found someone he hadn't seen in a while.

"Well, nice to see _you're _alive," said Angela.

"What the-? How did you get here?" Ratchet asked as the elevator climbed ever higher.

"That's later. Now we need to focus on getting payback."

"Where are the other two?"

"Well," said Angela as the doors opened and they started running, "Mr. Marksman is up on the hill where we first were, and I think Clank is playing the part of the Indestructible Automaton on the ground floor."

"Holy shit. Keanu's that far away?" asked Ratchet, halting in front of a window to look at the large number of Cragmites.

"Actually, no. This is the largest building in this town or city or whatever. He's got clear views of the chopper." Suddenly, the window in front of them broke, and a blast mark appeared on the wall. With a little bit of concealed humor implied with her voice, she said, "And, apparently, you, too."

"_Don't just stand around, Furball. Grab your gun and start fighting!"_ Ratchet's comlink then started ranting on, using very obscene words in order to get him to fight. He responded by turning it off. He then turned to Angela.

"He doesn't need to motivate me. I'm ready for revenge."

Angela looked at him in a concerned manner. "Ratchet, your eyes are glowing."

"Well, how can _I _tell that?" came the reply. Angela shook her head.

"Don't worry ab-" A sharp _ding _cut her off, followed by the opening of doors and the cocking of weapons. They turned around and saw the window that was no behind them was also in front of an elevator, which could only be occupied by…

"Cragmites." Without hesitation, Ratchet grabbed Angela's arm and started running down the hall. He heard them yelling at each other.

"_Lombaxes! Kill them!"_

Ratchet let go of Angela's arm and sprinted down the hallway. They flew past portraits of lombaxes, vacated rooms, and more, all the time dodging energy charges until they turned left through a doorway. The Cragmites ran right past them. Ratchet then turned to Angela.

"Alright, now to get their attention." He started to run out of the room, but Angela grabbed his shoulder and threw it around so his face met hers.

"Don't waste your time. Let's get out of here while we still can."

"And what? Wait for them to find us? By then, we could be the only two left! I've got to do this." And without another word, he ran out into the hallway and gave a sharp whistle. The Cragmites stopped and turned around at the sound of the whistle. When they saw Ratchet, they wasted no time in gunning him back into the room.

"Plan B," he said, panting slightly. He drew his SureShot and charged out of the door once again, firing blindly. Cragmites started falling without seeming to have been hit, but to Ratchet, it was one less Cragmite with every one that landed on the floor, and that was what mattered. Soon, all the Cragmites Ratchet could see were dead, and they resumed their hunt for the others.

They ran through hallways and rooms and corridors, looking for a sign of the other lombaxes. As they ran, Angela grabbed Ratchet by the shoulder and stopped him.

"What is it?" he asked.

"Shh!" she replied. "Can't you hear it?" Ratchet strained his large ears until he heard the faint _woosh _of a ship coming in to land. He turned to Angela.

"Tachyon must have called in reinforcements. Come on!"

They continued on, still searching for any sign of the lombaxes, but to no avail. Everything seemed hopeless until they heard weapons fire. It was faint, but it was the lombaxes. Ratchet and Angela continued in the direction of the gunfire, and as they grew ever closer, they heard what was possibly the most terrifying noise they had ever heard.

The noise came from lombaxes, but the problem was that those lombaxes sounded like they had been stuck in a blender and been frapped for a while. It was a horrifying screeching noise with a little bit of deepness in its tone. It sounded as if the lombaxes had been turned into zombies, high-pitched, furry zombies. Angela threw a terrified look at Ratchet, who tried to speak words of comfort.

"Relax. I think it might just be a distraction grenade; you know, a grenade that gives off decoy sounds, not explosions."

"That's what she said," came the reply. Ratchet rolled his eyes.

"Alright, let's just get there. Time for humor later." They continued down the hospital until they found the source of the noise: one of the patient rooms. They found a very unpleasant sight that met them as they came into the door.

There were, in fact, only lombaxes and no Cragmites. But half of the lombaxes seemed to have been driven insane. They had cuts all around their body, and blood was leaking out of their mouths, which were open. Their eyes were glowing blue, and they had claws where they should have had hands. The remaining lombaxes were trying to stop the lombax zombies without getting touched. Ratchet drew his gun and immediately started firing at the lombax zombies. Wherever he shot, the zombies flew backward against the opposite wall. Soon, all of the zombies had been killed. Ratchet started checking on the living lombaxes to see if they had been wounded. Among the fray, he saw Warren, Alice, David, and Marcus, all slumped up against the wall in different places throughout the room. He checked on each of them separately.

"You all right?" he asked a heavily panting Marcus.

"Yeah," he replied. "Meant to… tell you about… those things before…. Whatever. You've seen them now."

"Guess I have," said Ratchet. "I need to go help the others."

Alice was next.

"Are you okay?" he asked her. She nodded, not saying a word. Ratchet noticed her eyes were lightly misty. Then, without warning, she threw her arms around Ratchet's neck and pulled him closer to her. Ratchet, though caught off guard at first, wrapped his arms around her. Then, when he finally found some slack in her grip, he pushed her gently away, so that they were no longer embracing each other.

"Hey, it'll be all right," he said, trying to help her back up on her feet.

"Thanks," she replied.

Ratchet repeated the "Are you okay?" treatment around the room, and aside from a few scratches, everybody was alive. He heard the familiar _choppa-choppa _of a helicopter, and, strangely enough, _Taps_. Ratchet looked out the window and found that Tachyon's helicopter was rising up and away from the run-down hospital. Soon, everyone in the vicinity started clapping and cheering.

However, their victory cheers were short-lived as they heard running footsteps down the hall. Three seconds later, a lombax similar to Ratchet ran in with a rocket launcher. He broke the window, aimed for the tail of the helicopter, and fired. As the rocket flew, it made a very smoky trail. But when it hit the helicopter, however, that smoke had no effect on the visible integrity of the explosion. The helicopter soared to the ground that was out of sight. The mystery lombax turned around and looked straight at Ratchet. Ratchet felt like he knew this lombax from somewhere, but he just couldn't figure it out. Then the lombax spoke.

"Hey, Ratchet. Long time since I've seen you. Thirty-six cycles, I think."

Then it clicked in Ratchet's head. He _did_ know this lombax from somewhere. It was all there: the voice, the fur color, the eyes. There was no doubt in Ratchet's mind.

It was Kaden.


	12. Chapter 12- Ghost Stories

I'm back! Sorry for the long update. I have to get at 7 in the morning to swim like 1700 yards for an hour every freaking day. Also, I haven't been very good on my Delta Squad story. I'll work on that as soon as I finish this. I've started a new story as well featuring a Doctor Who/Ratchet and Clank crossover. Read it, it's great.

Anyway, got a bunch of fan mail wondering how Kaden survived his own death. Here we go…

**Chapter 12**

**Ghost Stories**

"D…Dad….You're…you…you're…_alive_?"

Ratchet said it as though it would summon the hounds of hell (which, without realizing, they had already encountered). Kaden smirked.

"Course I am. Just ran through a room and blew up a helicopter, didn't I?" he said.

"Bu…but…you're dead! I had a dream. You and Mom-"

"Oh yeah, sure. But you didn't see the whole show. Alister and the others only thought I was dead," replied Kaden.

"Well, no offense, but you should be," said Ratchet.

"I _should_, not I _am_. Let me give you a secret," he leaned in and, nonetheless, said in a normal voice, "Have you ever seen a picture of my dead body?"

"No, but I have seen a playback of it."

Kaden chuckled. "You woke up too soon. I, for one, never heard a photo being taken that night. Nobody has any PODs."

"PODs?" asked Ratchet.

"Military term. Stands for 'proof of death,' which is short for a photo of the dead person in question," came the reply. "Therefore, I waited until I knew everyone wasn't looking, and I used my suit to regen my health. The blood that was on the floor of my house that night is still circulating through my body now. I liked to screw around with my equipment, and this particular addition saved my life." He pointed at his armor. "This is an older version of the Harmonizer. It still works, but it's takes a bit longer to heal your wounds. Anyway, I had it that night, and it saved my life. Now I could fight with the lombax resistance.

"Of course, I couldn't take a very _active _role in the fight against Tachyon after I 'resurrected' myself, because if I showed my face to him, he would stop at nothing to kill me. If a lombax saw me, the secret could still be taken to the enemy. But eventually, I couldn't take the secret life anymore. This is the first big act I've taken up against Tachyon. And the best part is that he still doesn't know what's happening. He doesn't know about my 's why I-"

"Shot him down from a hospital window instead of doing it up front, yeah," Warren jumped in. "But the rumors about your ghost…"

"Well, some lombaxes can't tell a mirage from the real thing," said Kaden slowly. "It's really rare that anything happens, though. I think Coba may have had something to do with it, but there isn't much evidence against him. I can't back up that theory." There was a sudden buzzing noise following his words, and when it was finished, Keanu and Clank were in the room. Keanu, without hesitating, left the room. Ratchet looked at Kaden, said "I'll be back in a sec," and ran after Keanu. When he caught up, Keanu stopped.

"What are you doing?"

"I saw those…things you were fighting. When I did, I told myself I was going to check to see if there were any left."

"Well, why the one man army approach?"

"Lombaxes have enough to be getting on with than worrying about my welfare. I mean, it's not like I need someone by my side the whole damn time, right? How long have I been smuggling again?" He looked up at the ceiling, rubbing his chin and chewing his straw. "'Bout forty cycles. I can take care of myself, point being."

"But we need you," persisted Ratchet.

"Yeah, and this is how you need my assistance. Lombaxes shouldn't have to look at the rest of their race and see blank, expressionless zombies. Hence, me," came the reply.

"Keanu-"

"Just go, it'll be fine."

Ratchet exhaled forcefully through his nose, then turned around and walked back to the room his supposedly "resurrected" father was. When he entered the doorway, he saw Kaden and Warren talking (well, Kaden was talking. Warren was laughing his ass off.)

"…yeah, no, and I swear," said Kaden, holding his hand flat above his head, as if making a comparison to the height of something, "He must have been, what seven foot? I'm in the hotel lobby, right? This seven foot black Cazar guy starts talking Galactic Standard in a British accent! I thought I was in the goddamn twilight zone! Here comes this guy, like right up to me-" Here he assumed a British accent, "'Oh, good afternoon, sir!'" He started talking normally again. "I'm like, 'Who the hell's making you talk?'

"Oh, hey, kid," he said once he caught sight of Ratchet. "Just telling a couple stories about my pre-Keeper days. Pretty interesting. Once, I met the Vongoids. So weird, how they have those huge noses. You know, what the hell's that for? 'You are here.'"

"Dad, Keanu's checking on what those…zombie things were. He said he didn't want the lombax zombies to be seen badly in the living lombaxes' eyes."

"About those, Ratchet. Let's talk," said Kaden. He then turned to Warren, who had recovered. "We're going to the opposite room and are unavailable if anybody asks." A simple nod seemed all that Warren wanted to acknowledge Kaden with. Kaden led Ratchet into the room opposite Warren's and closed the door. Then he turned to Ratchet. He opened his mouth, closed it, sighed through his nose, then opened his mouth again and started to talk.

"Cycles ago, right after Tachyon discovered we had kept his true origins secret, people started randomly disappearing. The authorities had to work overtime every week. Even the Galactic Rangers were involved in the later cycles. Nobody had seen hide nor fur of the missing people. Everything seemed hopeless.

"Then there was a hell of a scare in a Holopaper article. There were four spec ops troops dispatched to a location I can't remember. Either way, they came back with a horrifying story. Apparently, the four guys encountered lombaxes who had supposedly lost their minds. They took photos and ran I.D. checks. The mentally diseased lombaxes were the ones who had gone missing.

"A spec ops team was instantly dispatched to Tachyon's base. Their mission was to find out what was going on there in terms of lombax trafficking and experimenting. When they got back to the old HQ, they had found that the missing lombaxes were being held prisoners there for experimentations. They were to be, if the serum was a success, the first of a new shock trooper called the Infected.

"When they found the serum worked, the Guard had no time to respond before the Infected started to transform. They sent the same spec ops team they did the first assignment to stop the Infected from spreading the contagion. Only one returned. He had been forced to kill every last lombax that had been infected, even his own squadmates.

"When we evacuated everybody from your own dimension, we ended up- of all places- the same place we banished the Cragmites. Everything changed. People getting snatched from the streets, never heard from, then found two weeks later, dead and insane in an old, run-down cabin at random locations throughout this place. At least, that was how it happened with most.

"After a while, we found another body. We thought it was the same story. But the Infected serum evolved. Lombaxes that looked normal and friendly, but were fighting for Tachyon, because they had no other thought in their head; they were brainwashed and were turned into drones. Think about it: the person sitting next to you could be one. Your friend could be one. Even a leader of the lombax faction could be one.

"I don't know why or how they did it; nobody does. But I do know this: What we just saw was _not _created 47 cycles ago. This is recent. This has been happening ever since he arrived, I'm sure of it. Just keep your head down, grit your teeth, and fight them, when the time comes. I hope that it will never happen again, but always hope for the best and plan for the worst.

"Let's get back to the others. We need to discuss our next action."


	13. Chapter 13- Outnumbered and Hopeless

**Chapter 13**

**Outnumbered and Hopeless**

Ratchet followed his father back into the room where all of Warren's troops were waiting. While walking back in, Ratchet started thinking. _How do all of Tachyon's troops combine? He fights his enemies by making them his friends? How the hell does that work? _He sighed in his thoughts. _There's a bigger picture here, I'm just not getting it. _His thoughts were interrupted by Warren.

"You OK, Ratchet?" he asked.

Ratchet shook his head to clear his expression. "Yeah. 'M fine."

"Good, because we've got company."

"What?" said Kaden.

"It's just a few Imitators escorting Tachyon here. They think they'll win or something, I guess. Hell, you can't stop Cragmite pride."

"But you can stop Cragmite lives," replied Ratchet.

"We have to hold them! They _will _surrender, Tachyon or no Tachyon!"

"Ooo-kay," said Ratchet. "Brother Chen's gone commando."

"Just shoot at them when they get inside. Everyone, down to the reception room! All except-" Warren pointed a finger at Ratchet, "you and me." Ratchet looked at him, trying to see if Warren posed a threat to him.

"And me," said Kaden.

"Kaden, I need to talk to him about the you-know-what!"

"If I know, why are you trying to keep a secret?"

Warren shrugged. "OK, got me there. Stay, then."

The room had cleared out by now, so Warren wasted no time making sure Ratchet sat down. Then he pulled a chair over to Kaden and returned to his own, sitting down and putting his elbows on his knees and his folded hands on his chin, leaning down and looking at Ratchet.

"Kid, remember when you killed Tachyon first?"

"Yeah, I do. First time any lombax had ever done it, right?"

"That's true, it would be hard to forget. But what did he say? Anything that stood out to you as important?"

"He said…he said the lombaxes were cowards. He said I couldn't kill him because only he knew my purpose in the galaxy; only he knew my true name. He thought I wouldn't kill him because of lombax curiosity. Then he said his race-the Cragmites-their return was inevitable, and lombaxes would never be safe. Then he fell, and now we're here."

Warren looked scared by Ratchet's story. Kaden looked unsurprised. Ratchet wondered if his father knew what was going to happen, what Ratchet was going to recount.

"Of course he would try to trick you into not killing him," said Kaden. "He has his facts wrong. He's not the only person who knows your purpose or your name. He thought I was dead. He thought your mother was dead."

"Is she?" asked Ratchet.

"Yes. Unfortunately, powerful as the Keeper of the Dimensionator is, resurrection is a power denied to anybody. I was inches from death when my Harmonizer kicked in, and that means I wasn't resurrected, I was jump-started, if you could call it that. But that's not the point. The point is, I know your true name. I know your purpose."

"Tell me then," said Ratchet.

"Just please, don't think too badly of me once I tell you. Your name is Ratchet Darkstar as you know it, correct?"

"Right."

"Ratchet…that's an alias. Your real name…" Kaden paused and closed his eyes. "is Jason Blaze."

"Jason Blaze…" said the newly christened Jason slowly. "Then you must be Kaden Blaze."

"No, I'm not. I'm still your father, Jason, just with a different name: Hunter. Your purpose, however, is different."

"Which purpose is that?"

"Your final showdown with Tachyon is coming soon. It may be a good sign, it may be a bad sign." And he started talking.

_As the other two talked, I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Our final battle would be epic, that much was true. What I couldn't believe was the death part of it. The Dimensionator turned out to be a deadly weapon. When the right words were said, it would automatically kill all Cragmites. Now it all makes sense. Tachyon must be killing all the lombaxes with "special abilities" he thinks are threats to the Cragmites, called Conduits. They're the ones that could potentially bring about the ultimate genocide of Tachyon's race. But there's one more potential candidate- me._

"-and if you don't stop him, all Conduits, and eventually all lombaxes, will be erased from existence," finished Hunter. "The universe will be technologically set back by at least a thousand cycles, maybe more."

"Well, I say bring it," replied Jason. "I've faced worse. Hell, I've even fought in a goddamn war. And I wasn't fighting a bunch of friggin' hippies, either."

"Nice story, but we have a different war to fight right now. Before we go down there, though-" here, Hunter threw Jason a small box (roughly in the shape of a TicTac box), "-take one of those. My own recipe. Enhances your agility," he said, as Jason threw his head back and downed a pill. "No thanks, I took one already. Give one to Warren, though," Hunter added as Jason tossed Warren the box of pills. After Warren ate a pill, he gave it back to Hunter. Hunter put the pills back in his pocket. "Thank you. And now, let's go show Tachyon who's in charge of this place."

As Jason ran out down to the completely trashed reception room, he couldn't help but feel like there was a flashback of when he did this kind of stuff earlier. He did this in the Underground with Riggs and David. He went between the variations of Gimlick Valley. But those were the past. This was here and now, where his concentration belonged. And if he couldn't concentrate, the lombaxes wouldn't survive. He would go down in history as the Redeemer who didn't redeem.

Pushing these thoughts out of his head, he started to focus on the enemies that the rest of Warren's group were fighting. Imitators were getting to be a bit old, and he wished Tachyon would spice it up a little. Jason was ready to explode with the new pill his father had given him. In fact, he decided to forget his weapons and use only his wrench. He charged straight in, yelling at the top of his lungs.

His first target only had time to look at him before he had ripped its head off. His second target had barely raised its weapon when it was hit by the head of Jason's first victim. The head and face met at such a speed, they fused together into one head before toppling down with the rest of the second Imitator's body.

The third Imitator, however, seemed much more agile than what an Imitator should have been. It somehow was able to kill one lombax while blocking Jason's wrench with its forearm. The force of the impact sent Jason backward five feet. He wasted no time in retaliating, though, and first threw his wrench into the Imitator's head. He then grabbed hold of its head and started slamming it into a conveniently placed desk. Sparks flew with each hit, and Jason started yelling again.

"Can you feel that? Can you feel that, bitch?"

Eventually, he stopped and let go of the head, which was nearly severed from the body. Few precious wires were all that held the head on its body, wires that were ripped off shortly after by Jason. His breathing was coming in heavy pants. He knew Tachyon was somewhere close, but he didn't know exactly. Hunter came up to him.

"You fight like hell. Good job." Then he lowered his voice. "Steroids did the trick, huh?"

"Guess so," came the reply.

"Well, now," said a new voice, "that's unfortunate."

Jason whipped around. It was Tachyon. He was on a new throne now, which made sense, after all. He hadn't noticed Hunter yet; his eyes were too focused on Jason.

"Ratchet."

"Tachyon."

"So, you found a way to destroy my Imitators with a mere wrench and your own two hands. I must work that out in our new model. It's coming out soon. Do you want to pre-order, lombax?"

"Nah, I'll abuse it once it comes out," replied Jason.

"If you stand your ground and fight, I can assure you that you will not live that long."

"Not unless I kick your ass into next cycle."

"Such is fate," said Tachyon. "We shall see whom she favors, yes?"

**Jesus Christ, man, it just keeps getting weirder. Ratchet (now Jason) is just about ready to explode. He's a Conduit (inFAMOUS reference), the Redeemer, and on top of it all, he starts using steroids. This is big-ass weird.**

**I can't really describe what I was thinking when I wrote the Imitator sequence. I've been playing the Uncharted series on PS3 recently, and I tend to get my ideas from video games, so I kinda took Nathan Drake's assassinations and combined them with Mortal Kombat-style violence (if you don't know what that is, go on Youtube. They rate it M for a reason, people!). And I took the idea of Cole MacGrath's still-picture, narrating cutscenes and threw it into the story. If you haven't figured it out, I have a PS3 and that's it.**

**What did I do good on? What did I suck at? I threw in a Brink (the video game) reference, so five points to the one who gets that. I also threw in an Ace Ventura reference. I await your responses eagerly.**


End file.
